Notes: 2026-06-09 CC Virtualization VirtIO subgroup

[Julianus Larson]

Hi,

Thanks for joining yesterday's meeting. Here are the meeting notes. The presentation slides from Sumit will be added later today.

Best regards,

Julianus Larson

Attendees:

Mark Burton
Sumit Semwal
Viresh Kumar
Michael Peter
Manos Pitsidianakis
Apurupa Pattapu
Bertrand Marquis
Randy Linell
Alex Benée
Edgar Iglesias
Bill Mills
Don Harbin
Ilias Apalodimas
Armelle Laine
Julianus Larson

Quick recap

This was the inaugural meeting of the VirtIO subgroup within the virtualization working group at Core Collective, chaired by Sumit. The group discussed key areas of interest including VirtIO Message 2 implementation across different backends, support for additional hypervisors like QNX, memory sharing and VSOC features, and various device backends including VirtIO Media. Participants shared their specific interests, with multiple parties expressing interest in VirtIO Message 2 implementation, particularly for FFA and AMP backends. The group discussed logistics including meeting frequency, with consensus to start with bi-weekly meetings, and addressed the need to transition existing VirtIO Message meetings into Core Collective. The conversation ended with discussions about contribution methods and funding, with plans to prepare estimates for continued work on VirtIO Message upstreaming using Viresh.

Next steps

Bill

• Start discussion in HVAC group and on mailing list regarding openness/accessibility of meetings and membership requirements.

Ilias

• Collect maintenance-related topics from subgroup members via email for prioritization in the next maintenance working group meeting.

Julianus

• Send out invites for the bi-weekly Virtio subgroup meetings.

Randy

• Reach out to contacts at QNX and invite relevant parties to join future meetings to discuss their requirements.

Sumit

• Prepare and share a detailed estimate (level of effort, deliverables, and cost) for Virtio Message (FFA and AMP) upstreaming work, to be sent to Google, AMD, Arm, and Qualcomm for their input and intent to contribute
• Work with Bertrand to identify and approach relevant contacts at Arm for potential participation and contribution.
• Coordinate with Viresh and other contributors to ensure continued and accelerated upstreaming of Virtio Message, leveraging existing contributors where agreed.
• Share meeting notes and collected topics of interest with the group.

Collaboration

• All interested parties (Google, AMD, Arm, Qualcomm): Provide intent and approximate level of contribution (funding/time) for Virtio Message work to Sumit/Core Collective.
• Sumit/Don (Linaro)/Core Collective: Fast track SOW process if agreement on engineering partner (e.g., Viresh/Linaro) is reached, and proceed to firm cost/commitment phase.

Summary

VirtIO Responsibility Allocation Meeting

The meeting began with Mark and Sumit discussing the allocation of responsibilities between different working groups, particularly regarding VirtIO-related topics. They noted the importance of determining financial responsibilities and potential investment from Trilog. As more participants joined, Julianus took charge, mentioning plans to record the meeting and acknowledging the multiple subgroups within the VirtIO virtualization group. The meeting was set to officially start after a brief waiting period for additional attendees.

VirtIO Subgroup Meeting Discussion

Sumit chaired the VirtIO subgroup meeting of the virtualization working group at Core Collective and outlined the meeting goals focused on discussing topics of interest related to VirtIO infrastructure. Mark shared that Qualcomm's users face challenges with VirtGPU across platforms and expressed interest in potential interface changes, while Michael discussed their interest in running Android on Sen and noted that the VirtIO ecosystem might be better developed under other hypervisors than Sen. Viresh expressed interest in advancing I/O backends in Rust, and Manos highlighted his focus on backends, frontends, specifications, and testing/verification.

Virtio Message Interest Collection Meeting

The meeting focused on collecting participants' interests in Virtio Message and related technologies. Sumit led the discussion, gathering input from team members including Bertrand, Edgar, Alex, Bill, and Apurupa. Key areas of interest discussed included QEMU backends, Virtio GPU, vHost user stubs, Virtio Message 2 for Qt support, and automotive use cases with SAN hypervisor. The group noted that Armel from Google would be joining with additional insights about Virtio Message.

Backend Support Discussion Meeting

The team discussed backend support for various technologies including Vert.io, VSOC, memory sharing, and WorldGPU. Sumit mentioned that Vert.io message and VSOC memory sharing were key topics from the previous day's meeting, while WorldGPU came up multiple times in the current discussion. The team explored support for different hypervisors and backends, with Bertrand and Edgar discussing shared memory functionality between host and guest, though Bill noted limited implementation details in the current spec. Sumit clarified that the current discussion focused on collecting potential backend support options rather than making immediate implementation decisions.

Hypervisor Support Discussion Meeting

The team discussed support for various hypervisors, with particular focus on Verdiome Media and memory sharing capabilities. Bill suggested explicitly mentioning security aspects of VSOC and memory sharing, while Sumit confirmed they would address memory sharing in general and Android use cases. The group explored potential hypervisor support beyond what was currently planned, with Alex noting that QNX was frequently mentioned as another important hypervisor in automotive use cases, though no specific QNX representative was present to provide input.

Virtio Message Framework Transition Planning

The team discussed transitioning Virtio message meetings to the Core Collective framework and established bi-weekly meeting frequency. They identified key topics for discussion including Virtio message transport upstreaming, test suite development, and maintenance needs. The group agreed to proceed with preparing a statement of work (SOW) for Virtio message upstreaming work, with Linaro potentially handling the engineering through Viresh, and discussed the need for firm cost estimates from all parties including Google, AMD, ARM, and Qualcomm. Julianus committed to sending out bi-weekly meeting invites.

[Julianus Larson]

Here are the slides from Sumit.