Can KVM run on the i.MX93?

[FRDM-User]

Hello,

Can KVM run on the i.MX93, technically? WRT virtualization, the i.MX93 only really seems to explicitly support Jailhouse... Would there be any potential challenges/risks associated with using an "unsupported" hypervisor such as KVM?

My understanding is that there shouldn't be any issue with using KVM due to the i.MX93's A55 cores being of the Armv8-A variety, i.e. they support virtualization.

Thank you

[Manuel_Salas · Accepted solution]

Hello @FRDM-User 

I hope you are doing very well.

The i.MX93 family includes Arm Cortex-A55 cores, which implement the Armv8-A architecture and support hardware virtualization extensions. From a purely technical perspective, this means hypervisors such as KVM can run on the CPU.

However, NXP only validates and officially supports Jailhouse as the virtualization solution for i.MX93.

The possible considerations to keep in mind are:

• NXP does not provide BSP integration, testing, or patches for KVM on i.MX93. 
• The i.MX93 does not include an IOMMU (SMMU)
• Jailhouse offers strong isolation and minimal overhead, while KVM introduces more complexity and may impact real-time performance

Best regards,

Salas.

[FRDM-User]

Thank you for the response, Salas.