Hardware-based Virtualization Built Into Next-Gen Nehalem-EX

posted by sylvia flores on September 25, 2009

Intel Senior Fellow Stephen Pawlowski delivered a session at this week’s Intel Developer Forum (IDF) on Intel’s latest industry-standard, mission-critical platform codenamed Nehalem-EX. And one of the key topics of discussion? Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT).

Nehalem-EX offers scalability along with world-record virtualization performance, enabling the highest consolidation ratios of any industry-standard server. And as IT departments across the board move to lower costs while increasing hardware utilization, Intel has responded to their needs by improving and enhancing its hardware-based virtualization technology.

With Nehalem-EX, Intel has created a feature that enables data packets to come in and be tagged to the appropriate virtual machine (VM). The hardware then places those packets into hardware queues that are focused on a particular Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). Once packets arrive, they are delivered to the appropriate VM in packet order and are re-packetized and put in the appropriate VM queue before they get sent to the virtual machine. It’s Intel’s hardware that is making virtualization software perform even better.

Including broad industry support for an era that is increasingly moving towards the cloud, virtualization technology combined with energy-efficient performance and RAS-rich environments provide a reliable, scalable environment that IT departments can bank on.

Download Stephen Pawlowski’s IDF session (PDF 1.94MB) Nehalem-EX_Steve_Pawlowski_IDF.pdf

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4 Responses to Hardware-based Virtualization Built Into Next-Gen Nehalem-EX

  1. Nigel Fede says:
    September 27, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    This is the reason why Intel is the pioneer in IT solutions. This will be the next big thing for Techies, IT professionals, and Businesses. Thanks for the article.

  2. Sylvia Flores says:
    September 27, 2009 at 6:50 pm

    Thank you for your comment Nigel! I agree that these technologies are going to rock the IT landscape, changing the way we think about utilization and manageability. It’s going to be a great year – Intel is paving the advancement path for sure. Cheers!

  3. john crow says:
    September 27, 2009 at 10:26 pm

    As a researcher of 30 years in this field, I am glad to see Intel developing optical interconnects, even for off the multiprocessor module. Of course researchers at IBM, HP(Agilent) , Siemens (Infineon). and others were demonstrating prototypes more advanced than yours years (even decades) ago, but it’s important to see a that a product technology developer and system integrator like Intel is moving optical interconnects into products. The manufacturing volume will drive the price to below that of copper interconnects, and the applications will flock to optical technology for the bulk reduction, line length flexibllity (regardless of data rate), and noise immunity that you mention. I strongly support your desire to work with other supplier and user companies to make standards for this “universal data bus interface”. The applications enabled by standards will generate revenue for technology suppliers and value to the rest of us computer users far beyond the value of making proprietary interfaces. Good luck on the commercialization pathway.

  4. Sylvia Flores says:
    September 27, 2009 at 11:46 pm

    Hi John!
    Thank you so much for your thoughts! I’ve talking with the ladies and gents who are in the know at Intel and they’ve been working on the optical interconnect angle for years as well. It’s more of a matter of cost than anything else, for sure! It’s coming down the pipe, we know this. If there’s a company that is going to lead a technology to fruition, Intel is it. And they’ll do it when the time is absolutely right.
    Cheers! I look forward to hearing more from you.
    Sylvia