This page describes the open source Xen hypervisor and how it is used on AMD-Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ and Versal devices.
Introduction
Xen is a free and open source type-1 hypervisor. The Xen hypervisor is developed as a Linux Foundation project as part of the Xen Project.
On AMD-Xilinx devices, Xen runs as part of Arm execution-level 2 (EL2). Xen hypervisor consists of three components:
- Xen Core - the central management engine of the Xen hypervisor
- Xen Domain 0 (Dom0) - the primary control domain. This domain hosts Xen utilities used to manage the lifecycle of User Domains
- One or more User Domains (DomU) - the various user/application domains. These domains run user applications and operating systems.
Using Advanced Xen Topologies
AMD-Xilinx devices support advanced features on Arm platforms that provide additional performance benefits. The table below lists important system features and the first Xilinx Xen release that makes them available.Feature | Description | First Xen release |
Dom0less | Dom0less functionality allows Xen to immediately start up one or more DomU's based on a devicetree-based system topology description. This feature allows Xen-based systems to boot more rapidly and predictably than Dom0-based systems. | 2019.1 |
Cache Coloring | Cache Coloring functionality maps hardware cache lines to specific Xen DomU's to prevent cache and memory thrashing. This feature allows Xen-based systems, particularly those sensitive to interrupt latency and bare-metal performance, to operate more efficiently. | 2020.1 |