Logical partition hosted virtual input/output using shared translation control entries

摘要

The present invention provides a method for sharing I/O facilities among logical partitions. A remote translation control entry table is created on a hosted partition appearing to own a virtual copy of the I/O facilities to be shared. The remote translation control entry table on the hosted partition is loaded with data from a hypervisor in response to requests made by the OS running in the hosted partition. The hypervisor, in response to requests from the OS running in the hosting partition, copies the data from the remote translation control entry into a standard translation control entry table on the hosting partition owning the physical I/O facilities that target the I/O page buffers of the hosted partition to perform the desired I/O operation. The I/O page buffers of the hosted partition are accessed by the hosting partition's I/O facilities using the data stored in the standard translation control entry table.