DIRECT ACCESS TO A HARDWARE DEVICE FOR VIRTUAL MACHINES OF A VIRTUALIZED COMPUTER SYSTEM

In a virtualized computer system in which a guest operating system runs on a virtual machine of a virtualized computer system, a computer-implemented method of providing the guest operating system with direct access to a hardware device coupled to the virtualized computer system via a communication interface, the method including: (a) obtaining first configuration register information corresponding to the hardware device, the hardware device connected to the virtualized computer system via the communication interface; (b) creating a passthrough device by copying at least part of the first configuration register information to generate second configuration register information corresponding to the passthrough device; and (c) enabling the guest operating system to directly access the hardware device corresponding to the passthrough device by providing access to the second configuration register information of the passthrough device.