RickSpace

Intel has unveiled new microprocessor chipsets that will be referred to as “VT” chips; I’m sure they’ve been talking about it for a while, this is just the first chance I’ve had to see it. VT stands for Virtual Technologies. This is a new technology that allows for hardware native support for non-emulated, reboot-free multiple operation installs. This means that if you purchase a system built around an Intel 3.8GHZ VT chip, you will be able to install, using a 3rd party layer like XenSource and some others that are on their way from such vendors as Microsoft and VMWare that will allow you to install a host operating system (with XenSource, Linux works as the host and with the Windows solution undoubtedly some Windows product will have to be used as the host) and multiple other systems as well. The real excitement comes from what is actually going on under the hood which I am certain I’m not totally qualified to discuss in detail but even the generalities make my extremities tingle. The two operating systems are 100% completely independent of each other and in fact, thanks to the hardware from Intel, they are not even aware of each others’ existence. I think there are good points to this as well as bad points but I’m not decided upon whether I think the complete separation is mostly a good or mostly a bad thing.

Good points include the possibility of being able to use one operating system to repair the files on disk of the other operating system in case of corruption causing inability to boot, and the fact that upgrading or getting rid of either operating system should not damage the other installation at all. The bad points that I can think of are limited to questions of shared memory. I would want the ability to transfer my cut and paste / clipboard buffer between the operating systems. This may seem like a small thing, but in function, it would be an exceedingly useful feature. So many times, when working with a dual boot system, two computers, or with a kvm, I have done something on one computer, whether it’s just browse to a website or type a paragraph and found for some reason that the information in my clipboard would much better serve me on the other machine. I’m not certain that this would be a feature ‘required’ by the industry, but it would be nice as a new feature in a later revision if not in the initial release.