NVMM(4) | Device Drivers Manual | NVMM(4)

# NAME

`nvmm` — NetBSD Virtual Machine Monitor

# DESCRIPTION

The `nvmm` driver provides kernel support for hardware-accelerated virtualization. It is made of a generic MI frontend, to which MD backends can be plugged to implement the core virtualization.

In practice, `nvmm` is used by the libnvmm(3) API to implement hypervisors.

# SUPPORT

The following backends are supported:

- x86-SVM, for x86 AMD CPUs
- x86-VMX, for x86 Intel CPUs

Note that for VMX support, the CPU must also support "VMX Unrestricted Guest", which is only present if Extended Page Tables (EPT) is supported. The earliest CPU family with this feature is Westmere, and not all later CPUs have it.

# SEE ALSO

libnvmm(3), nvmmctl(8)

# AUTHORS

The `nvmm` driver was written by Maxime Villard.

July 30, 2023 | NetBSD 11.0