# Project Status

> **What this page is.** The honest, dated state of the project: what works
> today, what is in progress, and what is not started. It is refreshed
> periodically and each claim maps to a maintained document in the repository.
> Canonical sources: [`../docs/README.md`](../docs/README.md) (project front
> door), [`../docs/04-implementation/01-known-knowns-and-unknowns.md`](../docs/04-implementation/01-known-knowns-and-unknowns.md)
> (known-knowns and known-unknowns) and
> [`../docs/04-implementation/03-execution-frontier.md`](../docs/04-implementation/03-execution-frontier.md)
> (the execution frontier). When this page and the docs disagree, the docs tree
> wins.

Status: 2026-10-30, tree `master @ b4930168`. Tags: `[live]` proven with the
stock guest driver; `[gated]` implemented, default-off or behind supervised
gates; `[wip]` partially implemented; `[wall]` current blocker; `[target]`
named success state; `[planned]` designed, not built.

## 1. Milestone ladder

| Milestone | State |
|---|---|
| Emulated vGPU device (PCI, BARs, MSI-X, VFIO mdev) | `[live]` working |
| GSP boot emulation (FWSEC / booter / RISCV handshake) | `[live]` working |
| GSP-RM message queues and RPC transport | `[live]` working |
| Stock guest driver probe and `nvidia-smi` (TU104) | `[live]` working |
| CUDA userspace init and the driver-API smoke (`cuInit`, device enumeration, `cuCtxCreate`, allocation, copies, free, destroy) | `[live]` working — the smoke prints `ALL OK` and the 64-byte payload round-trips exactly |
| Guest CUDA kernel execution on real hardware | `[live]` working — verified green on fresh boots: the vector-add (`VADD n=32768 bad=0`), matrix-multiply (`MATMUL n=256 bad=0`) and transformer (`dh=256 seq=64 bad=0`, `FFN4 layers=4 bad=0`) clients print `STATUS OK`, engine-authored completions relay to the guest and its synchronisation waits resolve. A ring-block ownership defect that could stall the first client after a reboot was root-caused and fixed. Remaining: the staged-transfer class (some large multi-chunk clients still mis-verify; the failure modes are proven and under repair) and per-guest execution isolation for simultaneous CUDA guests |
| Physical backend on real hardware (module-owned GPU running its real GSP-RM) | `[live]` boot, RPC session, object creation, copy-engine work and GR execution proven — the verified guest CUDA kernel clients execute through this backend, and graphics method streams execute on the engine in two lanes ([`Graphics-Execution.md`](Graphics-Execution.md)) |
| Multi-tenant isolation (mdev per VM, per-context page directories) | `[wip]` device-level coexistence works — multiple mediated devices with different emulated VRAM sizes and multiple guests coexist (two guests demonstrated); per-guest execution isolation for simultaneous CUDA guests is in progress |
| OpenGL (3D graphics) | `[wip]` — the X server and GLX run on the emulated vGPU with the stock driver, the engine executes real GL method streams (verbatim 3D replay plus synthesized launches), and a direct GL client creates its channels and readback path; rendered (non-black) frames are the frontier ([`OpenGL.md`](OpenGL.md)) |
| Vulkan (3D/compute) | `[wip]` — the guest Vulkan pipeline runs end to end on the emulated vGPU (device, allocation, pipeline, command buffer, fence, queue submit, readback) and the engine executes translated launches; frames are still black — program delivery and program-VA mapping are the frontier ([`Vulkan.md`](Vulkan.md)) |
| DirectX / Windows guests | `[planned]` (target) — no Windows guest booted yet; the architecture is the same emulation target ([`DirectX.md`](DirectX.md)) |
| Video (NVENC/NVDEC) | `[planned]` |
| Xen / Argo / OpenXT / Qubes Air transports | `[planned]` (the emulation core is hypervisor-independent by construction) |
| Live migration | `[planned]` |
| Performance numbers | `[planned]` — no published numbers yet; any claim will ship with its measurement methodology |

## 2. What "CUDA works" means here

A green `nvidia-smi` or even a passing driver-API smoke is not "CUDA works".
The project's definition of done for CUDA requires all of the following
([`../docs/04-implementation/01-known-knowns-and-unknowns.md`](../docs/04-implementation/01-known-knowns-and-unknowns.md)):

1. Stock guest driver probe, `nvidia-smi`, device enumeration — done.
2. Context creation and the full driver-API surface (`cuMemAlloc`, copies,
   free, destroy) — done.
3. A guest kernel launch that **executes on real hardware** and is proven by an
   engine-authored completion — demonstrated: the verified clients execute on
   the physical engine and the engine-authored completions relay to the guest.
4. Memory the guest's work refers to resolving correctly end to end (the VA↔PA
   model) — partially, for the paths exercised so far.
5. Correct completion, semaphore and fault semantics back to the guest — the
   GR completion path now relays (engine-authored releases wake the guest's
   synchronisation waits); fault semantics remain partial.
6. Reproducibility: every boot, not a lucky one — two root causes landed: the
   boot-poisoning defect (the wrong status-queue consumption cursor could
   desynchronise the reply ring under load) and the ring-block ownership
   defect that could stall the first client after a reboot. Green clients are
   reproduced across fresh boots; a formal every-boot acceptance campaign is
   the remaining work.
7. No ad-hoc default-off parameters required for the canonical path — still
   open (the forwarding and graphics seams remain parameterised while they
   are validated).

Until every gate holds, the honest formulation is: **initialization, the
driver-API path and kernel execution on the physical GPU work and verify;
the staged-transfer class, per-guest isolation and the graphics pixel
frontier remain.**

## 3. How to see it yourself

The reference setup takes about half an hour from a fresh host
([`Install-and-First-Run.md`](Install-and-First-Run.md)); the current expected
outcome is exactly the ladder above — driver probe, `nvidia-smi`, the full
driver-API smoke, and guest CUDA kernels executing and verifying on the
physical GPU. On the graphics side the same setup brings up the X server and
GLX on the emulated vGPU ([`OpenGL.md`](OpenGL.md)). The
risc-v-gsp-rm-debugger workbench
([`Riscv-GSP-RM-Debugger.md`](Riscv-GSP-RM-Debugger.md)) is the host-side
tooling used to study the firmware side of that frontier.

## 4. How this page is maintained

Every claim above carries a date and a tag, maps to a maintained document in
the repository, and is refreshed as milestones land. The execution story, with
its evidence, its resolved theories and its open work, is on
[`Execution-Frontier.md`](Execution-Frontier.md).

## 5. Related pages

* [`Install-and-First-Run.md`](Install-and-First-Run.md)
* [`System-Overview.md`](System-Overview.md)
* [`Execution-Frontier.md`](Execution-Frontier.md)
* [`Hardware-Software-Matrix.md`](Hardware-Software-Matrix.md) — which
  hardware and software combinations are Reference, Target or Experimental.
* [`FAQ.md`](FAQ.md)