METHOD TO USE PCIe DEVICE RESOURCES BY USING UNMODIFIED PCIe DEVICE DRIVERS ON CPUs IN A PCIe FABRIC WITH COMMODITY PCI SWITCHES

An apparatus for accessing a device in a separate domain, the apparatus comprising:

• a first peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) domain including a Central Processing Unit (CPU) host, a memory, and a first bridge device, the first bridge device coupled to a second bridge device of a second PCIe domain, the CPU host configured to:
• receive information corresponding to one or more virtual functions of an endpoint device in the second PCIe domain made available to the first PCIe domain;
• install a virtual function driver associated with the one or more virtual functions, the virtual function driver in the first PCIe domain having same properties as a virtual function driver in the second PCIe domain;
• access the endpoint device in the second PCIe domain from the virtual function driver in the first PCIe domain.

An apparatus for accessing a device in a separate domain, the apparatus comprising:

• a primary peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) domain including a first Central Processing Unit (CPU) host, an endpoint device, and a first bridge device;
• and
• a secondary PCIe domain including a second CPU host and a second bridge device;
• wherein the first CPU host is configured to:
• determine which of one or more virtual functions of the endpoint device in the primary PCIe domain are to be made available to the secondary PCIe domain;
• install a first virtual function driver in the primary PCIe domain associated with the one or more virtual functions of the endpoint device;
• and
• provide information corresponding to the one or more virtual functions through the first and second bridge devices to the secondary PCIe domain;
• and
• wherein the second CPU host is configured to:
• install a second virtual function driver associated with the one or more virtual functions, the second virtual function driver in the secondary PCIe domain having same properties as the first virtual function driver in the primary PCIe domain;
• and
• access the endpoint device in the primary PCIe domain from the second virtual function driver in the secondary PCIe domain through the first and second bridge devices.