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AVPS Specification, version 2.0 (PDF)
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AVPS Specification, version 1-01 (PDF)
Automotive Virtual Platform Specification
1. Introduction
Automotive requirements lead to particular choices and needs from the underlying software stack. Existing standards for device drivers in virtualization need to be augmented because they are often not focused on automotive or even embedded, systems. Much of the progression comes from the IT/server consolidation and in the Linux world, some come from virtualization of workstation/desktop systems.
A collection of virtual device driver APIs constitute the defined interface between virtual machines and the virtualization layer, i.e. the hypervisor or virtualization "host system". Together they make up a definition of a virtual platform.
This has a number of advantages:
- Device drivers (for paravirtualization) for the kernel (Linux in particular), don't need to be maintained uniquely for different hypervisors.
- Some potential for shared device driver implementation also across non-Linux operating systems
- Ability to move hypervisor guests between different hypervisor environments
- Potential for shared understanding, requirements and test-suites for different implementations of the virtual platform.
- Some potential for shared device driver implementation across hypervisors with different license models
In comparison, the OCI initiatives for containers serves a similar purpose. There are many compatible container runtimes → can we have standardized "hypervisor runtime environment" that allows a standards compliant virtual (guest) machine to run.
- Hypervisors can fulfil the specification (with local optimizations / advantages)
- Similarly, this specification is what guests can be engineered to.
2. Architecture
Assumptions made about the architecture, use-cases...
Limits to applicability, etc...
3. General requirements
Automotive requirements to be met (general)...
3. Common Virtual Device categories
3.1 Block Device
3.1.1 Standard Serial Device
REQ-1: Requirement according to chapter x.y in [VIRTIO].
3.2 Network Device
...
4. Supplemental Virtual Device categories
4.1 9pfs and host-to-vm filesystem sharing
<insert results about where to use and our conclusion that it has little applicability in automotive>
3. References
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