Modernizing Virtio GPU

The expansion of virtio-GPU into QEMU and Crosvm as well as Android automotive virtualization has generated demand for improved safety and maintainability of device backends thus leading to the development of vhost-device-gpu which functions independently using Rust and the vhost-user protocol.

This presentation illustrates the ways vhost-device-gpu reshapes virtual graphics architecture through its innovative design:

• Reducing the attack surface requires isolating the device backend from the VMM.
• The development achieves greater security through Rust’s memory safety features.
• The implementation supports modular renderer backends such as virglrenderer and gfxstream through rutabaga_gfx.

We’ll walk through:

• How the vhost-user-gpu protocol demonstrates functionality through existing capabilities like control and cursor queue handling, feature bit negotiation, and compatibility with modern renderers like virglrenderer and gfxstream.
• How the Rust-based internal components of the device work alongside Rust-vmm integration while working through Rutabaga difficulties and enabling Vulkan support through host-visible memory.
• Support for shared memory and host-visible memory region, is under active development to meet Vulkan and gfxstream demands.
• Real-world performance observations with Android AAOS and Linux guests.

The session will end with a demo of running vhost-device-gpu as a standalone process connected to a QEMU VM.