Virtualization on stage at Intel Dev Forum
Intel’s Pat Gelsinger just demo’d a future version of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 running Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT). IDF attendees saw an early preview of a future release (post-Virtual Server 2005 R2) of Virtual Server. This future release will provide support for both Intel VT and AMD Pacifica. This release is scheduled for beta in 1H 2006 and availability in 2H 2006. One great thing about CPU-assisted virtualization is improved performance for non-Windows guest OSes (i.e., Linux), which will be supported on Virtual Server R2 later this year.
The Gelsinger demo had PC #1 running a NT 4 Legacy app, web server app and SQL Server. Gelsinger then wrapped up the NT 4 Legacy app and moved it over to PC #2 to show the portability of VMMs running Intel’s VT.
Separately today, you should know that we announced that Virtual Server 2005 R2 – not Virtual Server 2005 SP1– will be the official name of the next version of Virtual Server 2005. The official name will appear in the RTM of the product in Q4 2005.
In another stage demo, Gelsinger announced VMware ESX (server) will run Intel’s VT. The demo showed WinServer 2003 x64, Oracle db on RedHat Linux, and Windows NT 4 on one PC. Gelsinger blue-screened the NT 4 server, while the other two remained stable/running.
Gelsinger wrapped up the virtualization conversation by saying Intel’s VT will first appear on Pentium (desktop) chips later this year, Itanium procs beginning of 2006, and Xeon procs later in 2006.
Patrick
