Network interface device that maps host bus writes of configuration information for virtual NIDs into a small transactional memory

摘要

A Network Interface Device (NID) of a web hosting server implements multiple virtual NIDs. A virtual NID is configured by configuration information in an appropriate one of a set of smaller blocks in a high-speed memory on the NID. There is a smaller block for each virtual NID. A virtual machine on the host can configure its virtual NID by writing configuration information into a larger block in PCIe address space. Circuitry on the NID detects that the PCIe write is into address space occupied by the larger blocks. If the write is into this space, then address translation circuitry converts the PCIe address into a smaller address that maps to the appropriate one of the smaller blocks associated with the virtual NID to be configured. If the PCIe write is detected not to be an access of a larger block, then the NID does not perform the address translation.