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Does the VMware Workstation
v15.5.1 support USB Passthrough
on a Host composed of the Z68x chipset
with Intel i7-3770 CPU
, which has the VT-d
feature enabled (also known as: IOMMU virtualization
) ?
The USB controller is the NEC/Renesas µPD720202
chip, connected to the CPU via the PCI Express bus.
If I plug a USB key into my host computer, VMware Workstation will ask me if the Guest should have the USB key or the Host should have the USB key. So as I understand your question, yes, passthrough is supported. Hardware virtualization is required for 64-bit guests, but that is independent of USB passthrough. – John – 2020-02-05T01:34:44.530
Exclusive ownership of the "USB key" does not guarantee, that the information from the USB port is passed to the
Guest OS
at high speed using theIOMMU virtualization
technology. The same behavior (but not speed) can be accomplished by the Hypervisor taking an exclusive ownership of the USB port and acting as a slow software intermediary/relay to the Guest OS. – George Robinson – 2020-02-05T01:43:02.873VMWare supports VT-d; What problem are you trying to solve exactly? – Ramhound – 2020-02-05T01:52:10.270
I don't think it matters how the USB Port is connected inside. If you can use a standard USB Key or USB Hard drive in it, then it can pass through in VMware. If this is not what you are looking for, please let us know how we may assist you. – John – 2020-02-05T02:33:01.777