For x86 code running on an x86 machine, instructions can largely be run directly, but any instructions or I/O access that violate the virtual machine have to be trapped and translated-this slows everything down. set, I/O operations/ devices, interrupts, and memory. You might have Making it happen fi rst: the Athlon 64 with its AMD-V hardware support. Virtualization can also be done in different ways. Usually with an emulator, the processor, graphics, and custom hardware controllers all have to be trapped and remapped to IBMPC hardware. A VM created in VirtualBox will largely be using the same hardware as the host, so a lot of optimizations can be made that way. Emulation is used to describe full-system virtualization, which also includes the guest’s processor and all hardware.
The full option, as you might guess, requires the host to recreate every aspect of the virtualized hardware from the full instruction Really, these are two sides of the same coin. Virtualization software largely has two options when it comes to running guest software faster: full virtualization or paravirtualization. It’s worth covering these, because they offer an insight into the work the virtual host is having to do. Hardware accelerationįor x86 processors (other processors, such as ARM, have their own technologies), there is a number of different hardware features that have been added over time to help accelerate virtualization of guests. Making it happen first: the Athlon 64 with its AMD-V hardware support.