Intel VT and AMD-V

[Will.Spencer]

Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) and AMD-Virtualization (AMD-V) are two competing technologies to provide CPU-level hardware virtualization.

Virtualization is the process of emulating multiple operating systems on a single computer. In effect, virtualization turns one physical computer into a number of virtual computers. Each virtual computer can run a seperate operating system, such as FreeBSD, Linux, or Microsoft Windows XP.

Virtualization technology was pioneered on IBM's VM (Virtual Machine) systems more than two decades ago, but has not become a mainstream technology on microcomputers.

In the microcomputer world, virtualization has previously been complex and error prone because it was provided using software-only solutions. Intel and AMD are now changing that paradigm.

These hardware-assisted virtualization technologies now available from Intel and AMD may make virtualization faster, more reliable, and less expensive.

During development, AMD-V was codenamed Pacifica. Likewise, Intel VT was codenamed Vanderpool. You may still hear these codenames being used to refer to these technologies.

[Fry]

Im confused how the CPU can do this, I thought it would be a software thing being able to run virtual operating systems?

[Will.Spencer]

You can do virtualization in software alone, but it is faster and more reliable if you do it with hardware support.

We've come full circle, we're moving back to the IBM VM systems of yesteryear.