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Encyclopedia > Comparison of virtual machines
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can.(June 2007)

The table below compares basic information about virtual machine packages. Note that these are all Virtual Machines in the 'hypervisor' or 'hardware emulator' sense. None of them are VMs in the Application Virtualization sense as the Java Virtual Machine or Parrot virtual machine. For those, see Comparison of Application Virtual Machines. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, so that the end user can operate software on an abstract machine. ... In computing, a hypervisor (also: virtual machine monitor) is a virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. ... Application Virtualization is a field within computer science which deals with breaking the age old bond between physical hardware, operating system, and the program which runs on top of them. ... A Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is a set of computer software programs and data structures which implements a specific virtual machine model. ... Parrot is a register-based virtual machine being developed using the C programming language and intended to run dynamic languages efficiently. ... This comparison of Application Virtual Machines lists some of the common software virtual machines that implement the concept of Application Virtualization, typically for the purpose allowing application binaries to be portably run on many different computer architectures and operating systems. ...

Name Creator Host CPU Guest CPU Host OS Officially supported guest OS Guest OS SMP available? Runs Arbitrary OS? Drivers for supported guest OS available? Method of operation License Typical use Guest OS speed relative to Host OS Commercial support available?
Advanced Power Virtualization IBM POWER4,
POWER5,
POWER6		 POWER4,
POWER5,
POWER6		 hardware / firmware
no host OS		 Linux-ppc,
AIX,
i5OS (=prev OS/400)		 Yes Yes
max 10 / CPU		 Yes native or
(micro lpars) hypercalls to
firmware-
hypervisor		 IBM any use, up to 64-way native,
POWER5 and later
have no raw-iron mode		 ?
Bochs Kevin Lawton Intel x86, AMD64, SPARC, PowerPC, Alpha, MIPS Intel x86, AMD64 Windows, Linux, IRIX, AIX, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS, MacOS X DOS, Windows, xBSD, Linux Yes Yes ? Emulation LGPL Hobbyist, Developer Very slow ?
Cooperative Linux Dan Aloni helped by others developers 1 Intel x86, others? (Same as parent) Windows NT (NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003), Linux? Linux ? No some are supported Porting GPL version 2 used as a separate machine for a server or with X11 networking Native[1] ?
Denali University of Washington[2] Intel x86 Intel x86 Denali Ilwaco, NetBSD No No ? Paravirtualization and Porting ? Research Slow ?
DOSBox Peter Veenstra and Sjoerd with community help Intel x86, AMD64, SPARC, PowerPC, Alpha, MIPS Intel x86 GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X, BeOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, QNX, IRIX Internally emulated DOS shell No No Yes Emulation using Dynamic Translation or interpretation. GPL execution of DOS applications, especially games Slow (10% native), much slower on non-x86 systems. ?
DOSEMU Community Project Intel x86 Intel x86 Linux DOS No Yes Yes Hardware virtualization GPL version 2 Legacy application support Native[3] ?
FreeVPS PSoft Intel x86, AMD64 compatible Linux Various Linux distributions Yes No n/a Operating system-level virtualization GPL version 2 Hosting, Service separation, Security Native[4] ?
Integrity Virtual Machines Hewlett- Packard IA-64 IA-64 HP-UX HP-UX, Windows, Linux (OpenVMS announced) Yes (4-way) Yes Unnecessary Virtualization Proprietary Server consolidation and Security Near native (no guest additions necessary) ?
Jail FreeBSD Intel x86, compatible FreeBSD FreeBSD Yes No N/A Operating system-level virtualization FreeBSD Hosting, Service separation, Security Native[5] ?
JPC (Virtual Machine) Oxford University Any running the Java Virtual Machine x86 Java Virtual Machine DOS  ?  ?  ?  ? GPL version 2 Research 10% ?
Linux KVM KVM Intel/AMD processor with X86 virtualization x86/AMD64 Linux Linux, Windows Yes Yes N/A In-kernel Virtualization GPL2  ? Near native ?
Name Creator Host CPU Guest CPU Host OS Officially supported guest OS Guest OS SMP available? Runs Arbitrary OS Drivers for supported guest OS available? Method of operation License Typical use Guest OS speed relative to Host OS Commercial support available?
Linux- VServer Community Project Intel x86, AMD64, IA-64, Alpha, PowerPC/64, PA-RISC/64, SPARC/64, ARM, S/390, SH/66, MIPS compatible Linux Various Linux distributions Yes No N/A Operating system-level virtualization GPL version 2 Hosting, Service separation, Security Native[6] ?
Logical Domains Sun Microsystems UltraSPARC T1 compatible Solaris Solaris, Linux, and FreeBSD Yes No ? Paravirtualization ? Server consolidation, Hosting, Service separation, and Security Near native ?
Mac-on-Linux Mac On Linux PowerPC PowerPC Linux Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux ? ? ? Virtualization GPL Native[7] ?
Mac-on-Mac Sebastian Gregorzyk PowerPC PowerPC Mac OS X Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux ? ? ? Virtualization GPL Native[8] ?
OKL4 Open Kernel Labs x86, ARM, MIPS as host none (bare metal) Linux, eCos, "other RTOSes" ? No Yes Para-virtualization BSD embedded systems Native[9] ?
OpenVZ Community project, supported by SWsoft Intel x86, AMD64, IA-64, PowerPC64, SPARC64 Intel x86, AMD64, IA-64, PowerPC64, SPARC64 Linux Various Linux distributions Yes No Compatible Operating system-level virtualization GPL Virtualized Server Isolation Native[10] ?
Padded Cell for x86 Green Hills Software Intel x86, Intel VT-x Intel x86 INTEGRITY Real-time OS Windows, Linux, Solaris No Yes Yes Virtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor Proprietary Developer, Business workstation, Security Near native ?
Padded Cell for PowerPC Green Hills Software Power Architecture Power Architecture INTEGRITY Real-time OS Linux No No Yes Paravirtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor Proprietary Developer, Business workstation, Security Near native ?
Parallels Desktop for Mac Parallels, Inc. Intel x86, Intel VT-x Intel x86 Mac OS X (Intel) Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, MS-DOS, Solaris No Yes Yes Virtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor Proprietary Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation Near native Yes
Parallels Workstation Parallels, Inc. Intel x86, Intel VT-x Intel x86 Windows, Linux Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, MS-DOS, Solaris No Yes Yes Virtualization, Lightweight Hypervisor Proprietary Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation Near native Yes
PearPC Sebastian Biallas x86, AMD64, PowerPC PowerPC Windows, Linux, OS X, NetBSD OS X, Darwin, Linux No Yes Yes Emulation using Dynamic Translation GPL Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation 10% host CPU speed ?
QEMU Fabrice Bellard helped by other developers Intel x86, AMD64, IA-64, PowerPC, Alpha, SPARC 32 and 64, ARM, S/390, M68k Intel x86, AMD64, ARM, SPARC 32 and 64, PowerPC, MIPS Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS Changes regularly [11] Yes Yes ? Dynamic Recompilation GPL/LGPL Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation, Server 10 to 20% host CPU speed ?
QEMU w/ kqemu module Fabrice Bellard Intel x86, AMD64 Same as host Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows Changes regularly [12] No Yes ? Virtualization GPL/LGPL Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation, Server Near native [13] ?
QEMU w/ qvm86 module Paul Brook x86 x86 Linux, NetBSD, Windows Changes regularly No Yes ? Virtualization GPL Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation, Server Near native ?
QuickTransit Transitive Corp. AMD64, Intel x86, IA-64, Power MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, Intel x86 Linux, OSX, Irix Linux, OSX, Irix, Solaris Yes Yes No Dynamic binary translation Proprietary Various Varies depending on host/guest processor combination ?
SimNow AMD AMD64 AMD64 Linux (64bit), Windows (64bit) Linux, Windows (32bit and 64bit) Yes Yes Yes Code caching, Virtualization AMD proprietary Developer, Server about 10x slower ?
Name Creator Host CPU Guest CPU Host OS Officially supported guest OS Guest OS SMP available? Runs Arbitrary OS Drivers for supported guest OS available? Method of operation License Typical use Guest OS speed relative to Host OS Commercial support available?
Simics Virtutech Intel x86, x86-64, Sparc v9 Alpha, ARM, IA-64, MIPS32, MIPS64, MSP430, PPC32, PPC64, POWER, SPARC v8, SPARC v9, x86, x86-64, TI TMS320C64xx. Windows, Linux, Solaris Depends on target machine, VxWorks, OSE, QNX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, FreeBSD, RTEMS, TinyOS, and many others have been run. Yes Yes Yes, but most of time unmodified is the point Full-system simulation Proprietary Early software development, embedded software development, advanced debug, computer architecture research depends on target nature Yes
SVISTA 2004 Serenity Systems International Intel x86 Intel x86 Windows, OS/2, Linux ? No ? ? ? Proprietary Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation ? ?
TRANGO TRANGO Systems, Grenoble, France ARM, XScale, MIPS, PowerPC Paravirtualized ARM, MIPS, PowerPC none: bare metal execution, Linux or Windows as dev. hosts Linux, eCos, µC/OS-II, WindowsCE, Nucleus, VxWorks Yes Yes[14] Yes Paravirtualization and Porting or Hardware Virtualization Proprietary Mob. phone, STB, routers, etc. Native[15] ?
User Mode Linux Jeff Dike helped by other developers Intel x86, PowerPC (Same as parent) Linux Linux ??? No ??? Porting GPL version 2 used as a separate machine for a server or with X11 networking Native speed (Runs slow as all calls are proxied) ?
View-OS Renzo Davoli helped by other developers [16] Intel x86, PowerPC, AMD64 (in progress) (Same as parent) Linux 2.6+ Linux executables Yes No N/A Partial Virtualization through syscall trapping GPL version 2 security, isolation, testing, mobility Near native (better with ptrace kernel patch[17]) ?
VDSmanager ISPsystem LLC Intel x86 (Same as host) FreeBSD FreeBSD Yes No N/A Operating system-level virtualization Proprietary Hosting, Service separation, Security, Isolation Native speed Yes
VirtualBox InnoTek Intel x86, x86-64 Intel x86 Windows, Linux DOS, Windows, Linux, OS/2, OpenBSD, FreeBSD No Yes Yes Virtualization GPL V2; full version with extra enterprise features is proprietary (free for personal and educational use and evaluation) Business workstation, Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Hobbyist, Developer Near native Yes (with commercial license)
Virtual Iron Virtual Iron 3.1 Virtual Iron Software, Inc. Intel x86 VT-x, AMD64 AMD-V Intel x86, AMD64 none: bare metal execution Windows, Red Hat, SuSE Yes

(up to 8 way) Symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. ... Advanced Power Virtualization, or APV for short, is the virtualization feature first available with POWER4 based pSeries machines from IBM and enhanced with the later release of POWER5 and POWER6 machines. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... Bochs for Windows displaying HAL91 (Linux) Bochs is a portable open source x86 and AMD64 PCs emulator mostly written in C++ and distributed under GNU Lesser General Public License. ... Kevin Lawton (born 28 September 1960 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a former New Zealand rower who won an Olympic Bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. ... BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. ... This article is about emulators in computer science. ... GNU logo The GNU Lesser General Public License (formerly the GNU Library General Public License) is an FSF approved Free Software license designed as a compromise between the GNU General Public License and simple permissive licenses such as the BSD license and the MIT License. ... Cooperative Linux, abbrieviated as coLinux, is software that lets Microsoft Windows cooperate with the Linux kernel to run both in parallel on the same machine. ... Cooperative Linux, abbrieviated as coLinux, is software that lets Microsoft Windows cooperate with the Linux kernel to run both in parallel on the same machine. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... In computing, Denali is an operating system, according to [1], an IA-32 virtual machine monitor, that allows for untrusted services to be run in isolated (protected) domains. ... In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... DOS Version of Z running in DOSBox in Debian. ... See also Just in time for the business technique In computing, just-in-time compilation (JIT), also known as dynamic translation, is a technique for improving the performance of interpreted programs. ... The GNU logo For other uses of GPL, see GPL (disambiguation). ... DOSEMU, alternatively rendered dosemu, is a compatibility layer software package that enables MS-DOS software to run under Linux on x86-based PCs (IBM PC compatible computers). ... FreeVPS is a GPL-licensed virtualization patch for the Linux kernel developed by Positive Software Corporation. ... Operating System Virtualization is a server virtualization technology which virtualizes servers on an operating system (kernel) layer. ... Integrity Virtual Machines is a software from Hewlett-Packard allowing multiple virtual machines to run concurrently on any Itanium server running HP-UX. The product is heavily optimized for server use. ... In computing, IA-64 (short for Intel Architecture-64) is a 64-bit processor architecture developed cooperatively by Intel Corporation and Hewlett-Packard (HP), and implemented in the Itanium and Itanium 2 processors. ... HP-UX (Hewlett Packard UniX) is Hewlett-Packards proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system, based on System V (initially System III). ... Operating System Virtualization is a server virtualization technology which virtualizes servers on an operating system (kernel) layer. ... A Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is a set of computer software programs and data structures which implements a specific virtual machine model. ... A Java Virtual Machine (JVM) is a set of computer software programs and data structures which implements a specific virtual machine model. ... KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware. ... x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... Symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. ... Linux-VServer is a virtual private server implementation done by adding operating system-level virtualization capabilities to the Linux kernel. ... Operating System Virtualization is a server virtualization technology which virtualizes servers on an operating system (kernel) layer. ... Sun Microsystems Logical Domains (LDoms) technology offers a virtualized computing environment abstracted from all physical devices. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Sun Microsystems UltraSPARC T1 microprocessor, known until its 14 November 2005 announcement by its development codename Niagara , is a multithreading, multicore CPU. Designed to lower the energy consumption of server computers, the CPU uses typically 72 W of power at 1. ... Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. ... Mac-on-Linux is an open source virtual machine program for running Mac OS on PPC Linux computers. ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... Mac-on-Mac is a port of Mac-on-Linux for Mac OS X. It is intended to be user-friendly. ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... The BSD license is a permissive license and is one of the most widely used free software licenses. ... OpenVZ is an operating system-level virtualization technology based on the Linux kernel and operating system. ... Operating System Virtualization is a server virtualization technology which virtualizes servers on an operating system (kernel) layer. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely-used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... A real-time operating system (RTOS) is a multitasking operating system intended for real-time applications. ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... In computing, a hypervisor (also: virtual machine monitor) is a virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. ... In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware. ... In computing, a hypervisor (also: virtual machine monitor) is a virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. ... Parallels Desktop for Mac is a software product by Parallels, Inc. ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... In computing, a hypervisor (also: virtual machine monitor) is a virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... In computing, a hypervisor (also: virtual machine monitor) is a virtualization platform that allows multiple operating systems to run on a host computer at the same time. ... PearPC on Ubuntu PearPC logo PearPC is an architecture-independent PowerPC platform emulator capable of running many PowerPC operating systems, including Mac OS X, Darwin and Linux. ... See also Just in time for the business technique In computing, just-in-time compilation (JIT), also known as dynamic translation, is a technique for improving the performance of interpreted programs. ... It has been suggested that Qemu-Launcher be merged into this article or section. ... Fabrice Bellard is a computer programmer who is best known as the founder of FFmpeg and project leader for Qemu. ... In computer science, dynamic recompilation (sometimes abbreviated to dynarec) is a feature of some emulators and virtual machines, where the system may recompile some part of a program during execution. ... It has been suggested that Qemu-Launcher be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Qemu-Launcher be merged into this article or section. ... Fabrice Bellard is a computer programmer who is best known as the founder of FFmpeg and project leader for Qemu. ... It has been suggested that Qemu-Launcher be merged into this article or section. ... QVM86 is a Linux kernel module to provide x86 virtualization capabilities for the qemu emulator. ... Paul Brook (born September 28, 1973) is an English mentalist and psychological illusionist. ... QuickTransit is dynamic binary translation software developed by Transitive Corporation. ... The Transitive Corporation provided the engine used in Apples Rosetta software, which translates software for Apple machines using PowerPC processors so it can run on Intel-based Macintoshes, the engine is based on Transitive Corporations QuickTransit software. ... In computing, binary translation is the emulation of one instruction set by another through translation of code. ... Symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. ... Simics is a full-system simulator from Virtutech capable of running unchanged production binaries of the target hardware at high-performance speeds. ... SVISTA - Serenity Virtual Station is one of the commercial software products promoted by Serinity Systems International. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... The correct title of this article is . ... MicroC/OS-II (commonly termed µC/OS-II or uC/OS-II), is a low-cost priority-based pre-emptive real time multitasking operating system kernel for microprocessors, written mainly in the C programming language. ... In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... User-mode Linux (UML) is an architectural port of the Linux kernel to its own system call interface. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... VDSmanager is a Web Control Panel that allows to manage Virtual Dedicated Servers (VDS, VPS) through an easy web interface. ... FreeBSD is a Unix-like free operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through the 386BSD and 4. ... FreeBSD is a Unix-like free operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) branch through the 386BSD and 4. ... Operating System Virtualization is a server virtualization technology which virtualizes servers on an operating system (kernel) layer. ... VirtualBox by InnoTek is an x86 virtualizer for Windows and Linux 32-bit hosts supporting Windows, Linux 2. ... x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... Virtual Iron Software, located in Lowell, Massachusetts, provides software for virtualization and management of a virtual infrastructure. ...

Yes Yes Native Virtualization Complete product carries a proprietary license [18]; a few components are GPL2 [19] Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Dev/Test Near Native Yes
Virtual PC 2007 Microsoft Intel x86, x64 Intel x86 Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, Ultimate), XP Pro, XP Tablet PC Edition DOS, Windows, OS/2 No Yes Yes Virtualization (guest calls trapping where supported) Proprietary (free from Jul 2006) Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation Near native with Virtual Machine additions ?
Virtual PC 7 for Mac Microsoft PowerPC Intel x86 OS X Windows, OS/2, Linux No Yes Yes Dynamic Recompilation (guest calls trapping where supported) Proprietary Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation Slow ?
VirtualLogix VLX VirtualLogix ARM, DSP C6000, Intel x86, Intel VT-x Same as parent none: bare metal installation Linux, C5, VxWorks, Nucleus, DSP/BIOS and proprietary OS Yes Yes Yes Paravirtualization and Porting or Hardware Virtualization Proprietary Embedded real-time systems: Mobile phone, STB, Softswitch, etc Near Native[20] ?
Virtual Server 2005 R2 Microsoft Intel x86, AMD64 Intel x86 Windows 2003, XP Windows NT, 2000, 2003, Linux (Red Hat and SUSE) No Yes Yes Virtualization (guest calls trapping where supported) Proprietary (Free) Server, Server Farm Near native with Virtual Machine additions ?
Virtuozzo SWsoft Intel x86, IA-64, AMD64 Intel x86, IA-64, AMD64 Linux & Windows Various Linux distributions; Windows Yes No Compatible Operating system-level virtualization Proprietary Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Disaster Recover, Service Providers Native speed Yes
VMware ESX Server 3.0 VMware Intel x86, AMD64 Intel x86, AMD64 none (bare metal install) Windows, Red Hat, SuSE, Netware, Solaris Yes

(Add-on) (up to 4 way) x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... Virtual PC is an emulation suite for Apple Mac OS X, and a virtualization suite for Microsoft Windows operating systems. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... Virtual PC is an emulation suite for Apple Mac OS X, and a virtualization suite for Microsoft Windows operating systems. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... In computer science, dynamic recompilation (sometimes abbreviated to dynarec) is a feature of some emulators and virtual machines, where the system may recompile some part of a program during execution. ... This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware. ... In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed (e. ... Microsoft Virtual Server is a virtualization solution that facilitates the creation of virtual machines on the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... Virtuozzo is a proprietary operating system virtualization product produced by SWsoft, Inc. ... Operating System Virtualization is a server virtualization technology which virtualizes servers on an operating system (kernel) layer. ... VMware Inc. ...

Yes Yes Virtualization Proprietary Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Dev/Test Up to near native Yes
VMware ESX Server 2.5.3 VMware Intel x86, AMD64 Intel x86 none (bare metal install) Windows, Red Hat, SuSE, FreeBSD, Netware Yes

(Add-on) (2 way) x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ...

Yes Yes Virtualization Proprietary Enterprise Server Consolidation, Business Continuity, Dev/Test Up to near native Yes
Name Creator Host CPU Guest CPU Host OS Officially supported guest OS Guest OS SMP available? Runs Arbitrary OS Drivers for supported guest OS available? Method of operation License Typical use Guest OS speed relative to Host OS Commercial support available?
VMware Fusion VMware Intel x86, Intel VT-x Intel x86 Mac OS X (Intel) Windows, Linux, Netware, Solaris, others Yes Yes Yes Virtualization Proprietary Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation Near native Yes
VMware Server VMware Intel x86, AMD64 Intel x86, AMD64 Windows, Linux DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Netware, Solaris, Virtual appliances Yes Yes Yes Virtualization Proprietary (Free) Server/Desktop Consolidation, Dev/Test Up to near native, substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially)[citation needed] Yes
VMware Workstation 6.0 VMware Intel x86, AMD64 Intel x86, AMD64 Windows, Linux DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Netware, Solaris, Virtual appliances Yes Yes Yes Paravirtualization (VMI) and Virtualization Proprietary Technical Professional, Advanced Dev/Test, Trainer Up to near native Yes
VMware Player 2.0 VMware Intel x86, AMD64 Intel x86, AMD64 Windows, Linux DOS, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Netware, Solaris, Virtual appliances No Yes Yes Virtualization Proprietary (free) Technical Professional, Advanced Dev/Test, Trainer, End User (Prebuild Machines) Up to near native, substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially)[citation needed] Yes
Xen University of Cambridge, Intel, AMD Intel x86, AMD64, (PowerPC and IA-64 ports in progress) (Same as host) NetBSD, Linux, Solaris Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Windows XP & 2003 Server (needs vers. 3.0 and a Vanderpool or Pacifica-capable CPU), Plan 9 Yes Yes Not required with the exception of the networking drivers where a NAT is required. A modified guest kernel or special hardware level abstraction is required for guest OSs. Paravirtualization and Porting or Hardware Virtualization GPL ? Up to near native[21] speed substantial performance loss on some workload (network and disk intensive especially) Yes
z/VM IBM z/Architecture z/Architecture (z/VM does not run on predecessor mainframes) None or itself, single or multiple levels/versions deep, e.g. VM/ESA running inside z/VM 4.4 inside z/VM 5.2 inside z/VM 5.1. Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM, VM/CMS, MUSIC/SP, and predecessors Yes, both real and virtual (guest perceives more CPUs than installed), incl. dynamic CPU provisioning and reassignment Yes Yes, but not required Virtualization (among first systems to provide hardware assists) Proprietary, one-time charge plus maintenance/support Enterprise servers Variable[22] ?
Zones Sun Microsystems x86, x86-64, SPARC (portable: not tied to hardware) (Same as host) Solaris Solaris, Linux (BrandZ) Yes, over 100-way No N/A Operating system-level virtualization CDDL (Free) Business, Development, Enterprise Server Consolidation, Hosting, Service separation, Security, Isolation Native speed Yes
Name Creator Host CPU Guest CPU Host OS Officially supported guest OS Guest OS SMP available? Runs Arbitrary OS? Supported guest OS drivers? Method of operation License Typical use Speed relative to Host OS Commercial support available?
  • ^  Providing any virtual environment usually requires some overhead of some type or another. Native usually means that the virtualization technique does not do any CPU level virtualization (like Bochs), which executes code more slowly than when it is directly executed by a CPU. Some other products such as VMWare and Virtual PC use similar approaches to Bochs and QEMU, however they use a number of advanced techniques to shortcut most of the calls directly to the CPU (similar to the process that JIT compiler uses) to bring the speed to near native in most cases. However, some products such as coLinux, Xen, z/VM (in real mode) do not suffer the cost of cpu level slow downs as the cpu level instructions are not proxied or executing against an emulated architecture since the guest OS or hardware is providing the environment for the applications to run under. However access to many of the other resources on the system, such as devices and memory may be proxied or emulated in order to broker those shared services out to all the guests, which may cause some slow downs as compared to running outside of virtualization.
  • ^  OS-level virtualization is described as "native" speed, however some groups have found overhead as high as 3% for some operations, but generally figures come under 1%, so long as secondary effects do not appear.
  • ^  See [23] for a paper comparing performance of paravirtualization approaches (eg Xen) with OS-level virtualization
  • ^  Requires patches/recompiling.
  • ^  Very good for light-weight, paravirtualized single-user VM/CMS interactive shell: largest customers ran several thousand users on single system. Highly variable for multiprogramming OSes like Linux on zSeries, z/OS that make heavy use of native supervisor state intructions, depending on nature of workload.

x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... Symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. ... VMware Fusion is a virtual machine software product by VMware, Inc. ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... VMware Server running Fedora Linux under Windows XP, with clock-synchronisation switched off VMware Server (formerly GSX Server) is an entry-level server virtualization software suite from VMware, Inc. ... A virtual appliance is a minimalist virtual machine image designed to run under VMware, Xen, Microsoft Virtual PC, QEMU, Usermode Linux, CoLinux or other PC virtualization technology, providing network applications like firewalls or webservers. ... x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... VMware Inc. ... A virtual appliance is a minimalist virtual machine image designed to run under VMware, Xen, Microsoft Virtual PC, QEMU, Usermode Linux, CoLinux or other PC virtualization technology, providing network applications like firewalls or webservers. ... In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware. ... The Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) is a communication protocol for running parallel programs on a distributed memory system. ... x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... VMware Player is a freeware virtualization software product from VMware, Inc. ... A virtual appliance is a minimalist virtual machine image designed to run under VMware, Xen, Microsoft Virtual PC, QEMU, Usermode Linux, CoLinux or other PC virtualization technology, providing network applications like firewalls or webservers. ... x86 virtualization is the method by which x86-based guest operating systems are run under another host x86 operating system, with little or no modification of the guest OS. The x86 processor architecture did not originally meet the Popek and Goldberg virtualization requirements. ... Xen is a free virtual machine monitor for IA-32, x86-64, IA-64 and PowerPC architectures. ... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation, is an American multinational corporation that is best known for designing and manufacturing microprocessors and specialized integrated circuits. ... Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ... Virtualization Technology allows a single machine to run multiple operating systems at once. ... Virtualization Technology is the name of the mutually incompatible virtualization technologies from Intel and AMD, previously known by their respective codenames Vanderpool and Pacifica. They allow a single machine to run multiple operating systems at once without incurring significant emulation costs. ... Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system, primarily used as a research vehicle. ... In computing, paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to virtual machines that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware. ... VM is an early and influential virtual machine operating system from IBM, apparently the first true virtual machine system. ... For other uses, see IBM (disambiguation) and Big Blue. ... z/Architecture (formerly known as ESAME) refers to IBMs 64-bit computing architecture for its top-of-the-line enterprise servers. ... Linux on zSeries (or Linux on System z9) is the preferred collective term for the Linux operating system and GNU/Linux software compiled to run on IBM mainframes, especially zSeries servers. ... z/OS Welcome Screen seen through a terminal emulator The title of this article begins with a capital letter due to technical limitations. ... VSE (Virtual Storage Extended) is an operating system on the IBM System/370 and System/390 mainframe computers. ... TPF is also the NASA Terrestrial Planet Finder project. ... VM/CMS (Virtual Machine/Conversational Monitor System, originally called CP/CMS when it first appeared) is a bundled pair of operating systems used on IBM System/360, System/370, System/390, zSeries, and System z9 mainframes (and compatible systems). ... MUSIC/SP (Multi-User System for Interactive Computing / System Product) was developed at McGill University in the late 1960s from an IBM system called RAX (Remote Access). ... In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. ... Solaris Containers (including Solaris Zones) is a virtualization feature first available with Solaris 10. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Solaris is a computer operating system developed by Sun Microsystems. ... Operating System Virtualization is a server virtualization technology which virtualizes servers on an operating system (kernel) layer. ... Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is an open source license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based the Mozilla Public License, version 1. ... Symmetric multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ... Windows XP loading drivers during a Safe Mode bootup A device driver, or software driver is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a computer hardware device. ... Linux on zSeries (or Linux on System z9) is the preferred collective term for the Linux operating system and GNU/Linux software compiled to run on IBM mainframes, especially zSeries servers. ... z/OS Welcome Screen seen through a terminal emulator The title of this article begins with a capital letter due to technical limitations. ...

Features

The table below compares features of virtual machine packages. In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, so that the end user can operate software on an abstract machine. ...

Name Can boot an OS on another disk partition as guest USB GUI Live memory allocation 3D acceleration
Bochs
Cooperative Linux
Denali
DOSBox No Yes
DOSEMU No
FreeVPS
Integrity Virtual Machines
Jail
KVM Yes [1]
Linux- VServer
Mac-on-Linux
Mac-on-Mac
Microsoft Virtual PC 7 for Mac Yes Yes Yes Yes
OpenVZ
Padded Cell for x86 (Green Hills Software) Yes Yes Yes
Padded Cell for PowerPC (Green Hills Software) Yes Yes Yes
Parallels Desktop for Mac Yes, if Boot Camp is installed Yes Yes No Support for DirectX 8
Parallels Workstation No Yes Yes No partially
PearPC
POWER Hypervisor (PHYP)
QEMU Yes Yes Yes [2] some code done [3]
QEMU w/ kqemu module Yes Yes some code done [4]
QEMU w/ qvm86 module Yes Yes
QuickTransit
SimNow
SVISTA 2004
TRANGO
View-OS
User Mode Linux
VirtualBox Yes (since version 1.4) Yes Yes Yes some code done [5]
Virtual Iron Virtual Iron 3.1
Virtual PC 2004
VirtualPC 7 for Mac
VirtualLogix VLX
Virtual Server 2005 R2
Virtuozzo Yes Yes Yes Yes
VMware ESX Server 3.0 Yes
VMware ESX Server 2.5.3 Yes
VMware Fusion 1.0 Yes Yes Yes No Support for DirectX 8; experimental support for DirectX 9 in 1.1 beta
VMware Server Yes Yes Yes Yes No
VMware Workstation 5.5 Yes Yes Yes Yes Experimental support for DirectX 8
VMware Workstation 6.0 Yes Yes Yes Yes Experimental support for DirectX 8
VMware Player No Yes Yes Yes
Xen Yes Enomalism Yes
z/VM
Zones Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Name Can boot an OS on another disk partition as guest USB GUI Live memory allocation 3D acceleration

Bochs for Windows displaying HAL91 (Linux) Bochs is a portable open source x86 and AMD64 PCs emulator mostly written in C++ and distributed under GNU Lesser General Public License. ... Cooperative Linux, abbrieviated as coLinux, is software that lets Microsoft Windows cooperate with the Linux kernel to run both in parallel on the same machine. ... In computing, Denali is an operating system, according to [1], an IA-32 virtual machine monitor, that allows for untrusted services to be run in isolated (protected) domains. ... DOS Version of Z running in DOSBox in Debian. ... DOSEMU, alternatively rendered dosemu, is a compatibility layer software package that enables MS-DOS software to run under Linux on x86-based PCs (IBM PC compatible computers). ... FreeVPS is a GPL-licensed virtualization patch for the Linux kernel developed by Positive Software Corporation. ... Integrity Virtual Machines is a software from Hewlett-Packard allowing multiple virtual machines to run concurrently on any Itanium server running HP-UX. The product is heavily optimized for server use. ... KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware. ... Linux-VServer is a virtual private server implementation done by adding operating system-level virtualization capabilities to the Linux kernel. ... Mac-on-Linux is an open source virtual machine program for running Mac OS on PPC Linux computers. ... Mac-on-Mac is a port of Mac-on-Linux for Mac OS X. It is intended to be user-friendly. ... Virtual PC is an emulation suite for Apple Mac OS X, and a virtualization suite for Microsoft Windows operating systems. ... OpenVZ is an operating system-level virtualization technology based on the Linux kernel and operating system. ... Parallels Desktop for Mac is a software product by Parallels, Inc. ... Boot Camp is a software assistant made available by Apple Inc. ... Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... PearPC on Ubuntu PearPC logo PearPC is an architecture-independent PowerPC platform emulator capable of running many PowerPC operating systems, including Mac OS X, Darwin and Linux. ... It has been suggested that Qemu-Launcher be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Qemu-Launcher be merged into this article or section. ... It has been suggested that Qemu-Launcher be merged into this article or section. ... QVM86 is a Linux kernel module to provide x86 virtualization capabilities for the qemu emulator. ... QuickTransit is dynamic binary translation software developed by Transitive Corporation. ... SVISTA - Serenity Virtual Station is one of the commercial software products promoted by Serinity Systems International. ... User-mode Linux (UML) is an architectural port of the Linux kernel to its own system call interface. ... VirtualBox by InnoTek is an x86 virtualizer for Windows and Linux 32-bit hosts supporting Windows, Linux 2. ... Virtual Iron Software, located in Lowell, Massachusetts, provides software for virtualization and management of a virtual infrastructure. ... Virtual PC is a virtualization suite for Apple Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems, originally created by Connectix, subsequently acquired by Microsoft. ... Screenshot of Virtual PC 6. ... A virtual private server (also referred to as virtual dedicated server or virtual server, and abbreviated VPS or VDS) is a method of partitioning one physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. ... Virtuozzo is a proprietary operating system virtualization product produced by SWsoft, Inc. ... VMware Inc. ... VMware Inc. ... VMware Fusion is a virtual machine software product by VMware, Inc. ... Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. ... VMware Inc. ... VMware Inc. ... VMware Inc. ... VMware Inc. ... Xen is a free virtual machine monitor for IA-32, x86-64, IA-64 and PowerPC architectures. ... Enomalism is a management console for the Xen Hypervisor. ... VM is an early and influential virtual machine operating system from IBM, apparently the first true virtual machine system. ... Solaris Containers (including Solaris Zones) is a virtualization feature first available with Solaris 10. ...

Other emulators

Other (free, maintained) emulators not mentioned above:

SkyEye 1.2.1

SkyEye is an Open Source Simulator, which simulates series ARM architecture based microprocessors and Blackfin DSP Processor. Users can run Operating Systems such as Linux, uCLinux, uC/OS-II for ARM and can analyze or debug in source level.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=85554

PearColator
  • http://pearcolator.wiki.sourceforge.net/
PearColator is a development Open Source binary translator that can take x86, PowerPC and ARM machine codes and compile them using a high performance JVM's JIT compiler to run on PowerPC and Intel architectures. It is novel in being written in Java using the same compiler to optimize itself as the emulated architectures.

References

  1. ^ Virtual Machine Manager. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  2. ^ Virtual Machine Manager. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  3. ^ QEMU-Forum. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  4. ^ QEMU-Forum. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
  5. ^ VirtualBox Bugtracking Ticket #475. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.

  Results from FactBites:
 
virtual machine: Definition and Much More from Answers.com (2432 words)
Native virtualization and "full virtualization" — the virtual machine only partially simulates enough hardware to allow an unmodified OS to be run in isolation, but the guest OS must be designed for the same type of CPU.
Because versions of the virtual machine are written for various computer platforms, any application written for the virtual machine can be operated on any of the platforms, instead of having to produce separate versions of the application for each computer and operating system.
Virtual machines can also perform the role of an emulator, allowing software applications and operating systems written for another computer processor architecture to be run.
Webopedia: All About Hypervisors (1220 words)
Storage virtualization is the amalgamation of multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage unit, which is somewhat of the opposite effect of partitioning a hard drive.
System virtualization is a technology often used to consolidate systems, workloads and operating environments by using a single physical system to create multiple virtual systems.
Virtualization technology is enjoying a period of explosive growth at the moment, and increasing numbers of enterprises are becoming virtualization converts.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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