# Virtio driver {#virtio}

# Introduction {#virtio_intro}

SPDK Virtio driver is a C library that allows communicating with Virtio devices.
It allows any SPDK application to become an initiator for (SPDK) vhost targets.

The driver supports two different usage models:
* PCI - This is the standard mode of operation when used in a guest virtual
machine, where QEMU has presented the virtio controller as a virtual PCI device.
* vhost-user - Can be used to connect to a vhost socket directly on the same host.

The driver, just like the SPDK @ref vhost, is using pollers instead of standard
interrupts to check for an I/O response. If used inside a VM, it bypasses interrupt
and context switching overhead of QEMU and guest kernel, significantly boosting
the overall I/O performance.

This Virtio library is currently used to implement two bdev modules:
@ref bdev_config_virtio_scsi and @ref bdev_config_virtio_blk.
These modules will export generic SPDK block devices usable by any SPDK application.