Virtual I/O Device (VIRTIO) Version 1.0

Describes the specifications of the “virtio” family of devices. These devices are found in virtual environments, yet by design they look like physical devices to the guest within the virtual machine – and this document treats them as such. This similarity allows the guest to use standard drivers and discovery mechanisms.
The purpose of virtio and this specification is that virtual environments and guests should have a straightforward, efficient, standard and extensible mechanism for virtual devices, rather than boutique per-environment or per-OS mechanisms.

Produced by:

OASIS Virtual I/O Device (VIRTIO) TC

Voting history:

August 2015

Voting History

Cite as:

Cite as:
[VIRTIO-v1.0]
Virtual I/O Device (VIRTIO) Version 1.0. Edited by Rusty Russell, Michael S. Tsirkin, Cornelia Huck, and Pawel Moll. 03 March 2016. OASIS Committee Specification 04. http://docs.oasis-open.org/virtio/virtio/v1.0/cs03/virtio-v1.0-cs03.html. Latest version: http://docs.oasis-open.org/virtio/virtio/v1.0/virtio-v1.0.html.