At least one input/output (I/O) firmware partition is provided in a
partitioned environment to facilitate access to I/O resources owned by
the at least one I/O firmware partition. The I/O resources of an I/O
firmware partition are shared by one or more other partitions of the
environment, referred to as consumer partitions. The consumer partitions
use the I/O firmware partition to access the I/O resources. Since the I/O
firmware partitions are responsible for providing access to the I/O
resources owned by those partitions, the consumer partitions are relieved
of this task, reducing complexity and costs in the consumer partitions.