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Comparison of platform virtual machinesPlatform virtual machines are software packages that emulate the whole physical computer machine, often providing multiple virtual machines on one physical platform. The table below compares basic information about platform virtual machine (VM) packages.
General|
| Bochs | Kevin Lawton | Any | x86, x86-64 | Windows, Linux, Unix/X11, Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, BeOS, MorphOS, OS/2[1][2] | Windows, Linux, DOS, BSD, OS/2, Haiku | LGPL |
|---|
| Containers, or Zones | Sun Microsystems | x86, x86-64, SPARC (portable: not tied to hardware) | Same as host | Solaris 10, Solaris 11 Express, OpenSolaris 2009.06 | Solaris (8, 9, 10, 11), Linux (BrandZ) | CDDL |
|---|
| Cooperative Linux (coLinux) | Dan Aloni, other developers | x86[3] | Same as host | Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista[3] | Linux | GPL version 2 |
|---|
| CHARON | Stromasys | x86, x86_64, IA64 | PDP-11, VAX, Alpha | Windows, Linux, OpenVMS | VMS, OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX | Proprietary |
|---|
| Denali | University of Washington | x86 | x86 | Denali | Ilwaco, NetBSD | ? |
|---|
| DOSBox | Peter Veenstra, Sjoerd, community help | Any | x86 | Linux, Windows, Mac OS classic, Mac OS X, BeOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, QNX, IRIX, MorphOS, AmigaOS, Maemo, Symbian | Internally emulated DOS shell; classic PC booter games, unofficially Windows 1.0 to 3.11 | GPL |
|---|
| DOSEMU | Community project | x86, x86-64 | x86 | Linux | DOS | GPL version 2 |
|---|
| FreeBSD Jail | FreeBSD | Any running FreeBSD | Same as host | FreeBSD | FreeBSD, Linux ABI | BSD |
|---|
| GXemul | Anders Gavare | Any | ARM, MIPS, M88K, PowerPC, SuperH | Unix-like | NetBSD, OpenBSD, Linux, Ultrix, Sprite | BSD |
|---|
| Hercules | Roger Bowler | Any | z/Architecture | Windows, Linux, Mac OS X | Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, OS/360, DOS/360, DOS/VS, MVS, VM/370, TSS/370 | QPL |
|---|
| Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 | Microsoft | x86-64 + hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) | x86-64, x86 (up to 8 physical CPUs) | Windows 2008 w/Hyper-V Role, Windows Hyper-V Server | supported drivers for Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux (SUSE 10 released, more announced) | Proprietary |
|---|
| Hyper-V Server 2012 | Microsoft | x86-64 + hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD-V only for RemoteFX) | x86-64, (up to 64 physical CPUs) | Windows 2012 w/Hyper-V Role, | supported drivers for Windows NT, Linux (SUSE 10, RHEL 6, CentOS 6) | Proprietary |
|---|
| iCore Virtual Accounts | iCore Software | x86 | x86 | Windows XP | Windows XP | Proprietary |
|---|
| Integrity Virtual Machines | Hewlett-Packard | IA-64 | IA-64 | HP-UX | HP-UX, Windows, Linux (OpenVMS announced) | Proprietary |
|---|
| JPC (Virtual Machine) | Oxford University | Any running the Java Virtual Machine | x86 | Java Virtual Machine | DOS, Linux, Windows up to 3.0 | GPL version 2 |
|---|
| KVM | Qumranet [1] | x86, x86-64, IA-64, with x86 virtualization, s390, PowerPC[4] | Same as host | FreeBSD, Linux, illumos | FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Windows, Plan 9 | GPL version 2 |
|---|
| Linux-VServer | Community Project | x86, x86-64, IA-64, Alpha, PowerPC 64, PA-RISC 64, SPARC64, ARM, S/390, SH/66, MIPS | Compatible | Linux | Linux variants | GPL version 2 |
|---|
| LynxSecure | LynuxWorks | x86, Intel VT-x, Intel VT-d | x86 | No host OS | LynxOS, Linux, Windows | Proprietary |
|---|
| LXC | Community project lxc.sourceforge.net | x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC 64, SPARC64 | Same as host | Linux | Linux variants | GPL version 2 |
|---|
| Mac-on-Linux | Mac-on-Linux | PowerPC | PowerPC | Linux | Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux | GPL |
|---|
| Mac-on-Mac | Sebastian Gregorzyk | PowerPC | PowerPC | Mac OS X, up to Tiger excluded | Mac OS X, Mac OS 7.5.2 to 9.2.2, Linux | GPL |
|---|
| OKL4 Microvisor | Open Kernel Labs | ARM | Same as host | No host OS | Linux variants, various RTOSes, Symbian, proprietary, OS-less (native) applications and drivers | Proprietary |
|---|
| OpenVZ | Community project, supported by SWsoft, now Parallels, Inc. | x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC 64, SPARC64 | Same as host | Linux | Linux variants | GPL |
|---|
| Oracle VM for x86 | Oracle Corporation | x86, x86-64, Intel VT-x, AMD-V | x86, x86-64, Intel VT-x, AMD-V | No host OS | Microsoft Windows, Oracle Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Solaris | Oracle VM Server GPL; Manager proprietary |
|---|
| Oracle VM Server for SPARC (LDoms) | Oracle Corporation | UltraSPARC T1, UltraSPARC T2, UltraSPARC T2+, SPARC T3, SPARC T4 | Compatible | Solaris 10, Solaris 11 | Supported: Solaris. Without Oracle support: Linux, FreeBSD | Proprietary |
|---|
| OVPsim | OVP [2] | x86 | OR1K, MIPS32, ARC600/700, ARM; and public API which enables users to write custom processor models, RISC, CISC, DSP, VLIW all possible | Microsoft Windows, Linux | Depends on target machine, for example includes MIPS Malta that runs Linux or SMP-Linux; and includes public API which enables users to write custom peripheral and system models | Proprietary, Apache 2.0 for models |
|---|
| Parallels Desktop for Mac | Parallels, Inc. | x86, Intel VT-x | x86 | Mac OS X x86 | DOS, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X Server, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, Solaris, Haiku | Proprietary |
|---|
| Parallels Workstation | Parallels, Inc. | x86, Intel VT-x | x86 | Windows, Linux | Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/2, eComStation, DOS, Solaris, Haiku | Proprietary |
|---|
| PearPC | Sebastian Biallas | x86, x86-64, PowerPC | PowerPC | Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD | Mac OS X, Darwin, Linux | GPL |
|---|
| PikeOS | SYSGO AG | PowerPC, x86, ARM, MIPS, SPARC, SuperH | Same as host | No host OS, Linux or Windows as dev.hosts | PikeOS native, Linux, POSIX, AUTOSAR, ANDROID, RTEMS, OSEK, ARINC 653 APEX, ITRON | Proprietary |
|---|
| PowerVM | IBM | POWER4, POWER5, POWER6, POWER7, PowerPC 970 | POWER4/5/6/7, PowerPC 970, X86 (PowerVM-Lx86) | No host OS | Linux PowerPC, x86; AIX, i5/OS, IBM i | Proprietary |
|---|
| QEMU | Fabrice Bellard, other developers | x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC, SPARC 32/64, ARM, S/390, MIPS | x86, x86-64, Alpha, ARM, CRIS, LM32, M68k, MicroBlaze, MIPS, OpenRisc32, PowerPC, S/390, SH4, SPARC 32/64, Unicore32, Xtensa | Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS | Changes regularly[5] | GPL/LGPL |
|---|
| QEMU w/ kqemu module | Fabrice Bellard | x86, x86-64 | Same as host | Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Windows | Changes regularly[5] | GPL/LGPL |
|---|
| QEMU w/ qvm86 module | Paul Brook | x86 | x86 | Linux, NetBSD, Windows | Changes regularly | GPL |
|---|
| QuickTransit | Transitive Corp. | x86, x86-64, IA-64, POWER | MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, x86 | Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris | Linux, Mac OS X, Irix, Solaris | Proprietary |
|---|
| RTS Hypervisor | Real-Time Systems [3] | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | No host OS | Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Embedded, Windows CE, Linux, Android, VxWorks, OS-9, RTOS-32, QNX, RTEMS, T-Kernel, proprietary | Proprietary |
|---|
| ScaleMP vSMP Foundation | ScaleMP | x86, x86-64 | Same as host, up to 8,192 CPUs and 64 TB per VM | No host OS | Linux | Proprietary |
|---|
| vNUMA | Matthew Chapman | IA-64 | IA-64, combines CPUs and memory from independent nodes into a virtual NUMA machine | No host OS | Linux | Open source/research |
|---|
| Safe Virtual Machine, SVM | Altreonic, www.altreonic.com | Any | Any | OpenComRTOS or any other (RT)OS | N.A. | Binary, Open Technology License |
|---|
| SIMH | Bob Supnik, The Computer History Simulation Project | Alpha, ARM, HPPA, x86, IA-64, x86-64, M68K, MIPS, MIPSel, POWER, s390, SPARC | Data General Nova, Eclipse; Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-1, PDP-4, PDP-7, PDP-8, PDP-9, PDP-10, PDP-11, PDP-15, VAX; GRI Corporation GRI-909, IBM 1401, 1620, 1130, 7090/7094, System 3; Interdata (Perkin-Elmer) 16b/32b systems; Hewlett-Packard 2114, 2115, 2116, 2100, 21MX; Honeywell H316/H516; MITS Altair 8800 with 8080 and Z80; Royal-Mcbee LGP-30, LGP-21; Scientific Data Systems SDS 940 | BSD, Linux, Solaris, VMS, Windows | Depends on target machine, includes NetBSD/VAX, OpenBSD/VAX, VAX/VMS, Unix v6, Unix v7, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, ITS | BSD-like, unique |
|---|
| Simics | Wind River | x86, x86-64 | 8051, 68000, ARM (v4, v5, v6, v7), MIPS32, MIPS64, Cavium cnMIPS, Broadcom XLR MIPS, Frescale Power Architecture 32-bit and 64-bit (e300, e500, e600, e5500, e6500), IBM Power Architecture (POWER, PPC44x, PPC46x, 47x), SPARC v8 (LEON), SPARC v9 (UltraSparc), x86 (from 80286 to Sandy Bridge), x86-64 (from Pentium4 to Sandy Bridge), TI TMS320C64xx, Renesas H8, Renesas SH | Windows 32-bit and 64-bit, Linux 32-bit and 64-bit | Depends on target machine, typically runs unmodified software stacks from the corresponding real target, including VxWorks, VxWorks 653, OSE, QNX, Linux, Solaris, Windows, FreeBSD, RTEMS, TinyOS, Wind River Hypervisor, VMware ESX, and others | Proprietary |
|---|
| Sun xVM Server | Sun Microsystems | x86-64, SPARC | Same as host | No host OS | Windows XP, 2003 Server (x86-64 only), Linux, Solaris | GPL version 3 |
|---|
| SVISTA 2004 | Serenity Systems International | x86 | x86 | Windows, OS/2, Linux | Windows, Linux, OS/2, BSD | Proprietary |
|---|
| TRANGO | TRANGO Virtual Processors, Grenoble, France | ARM, XScale, MIPS, PowerPC | Paravirtualized ARM, MIPS, PowerPC | No host OS, Linux or Windows as dev. hosts | Linux, eCos, µC/OS-II, WindowsCE, Nucleus, VxWorks | Proprietary |
|---|
| User Mode Linux | Jeff Dike, other developers | x86, x86-64, PowerPC | Same as host | Linux | Linux | GPL version 2 |
|---|
| VirtualBox | Innotek, acquired by Oracle Corporation | x86, x86-64, Intel VT-x, AMD-V | x86, (x86-64 only on VirtualBox 2 and later with hardware virtualization) | Windows, Linux, Mac OS X x86, Solaris, FreeBSD, eComStation | DOS, Linux, Mac OS X Server,[6] FreeBSD, Haiku, OS/2, Solaris, Syllable, Windows | GPL version 2; full version with extra enterprise features is proprietary |
|---|
| Virtual Iron 3.1 | Virtual Iron Software, Inc., acquired by Oracle | x86 VT-x, x86-64 AMD-V | x86, x86-64 | No host OS | Windows, Linux | Full product is proprietary, a few components are GPL version 2[7] |
|---|
| Virtual PC 2007 | Connectix | x86, x86-64 | x86 | Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise, Ultimate), XP Pro, XP Tablet PC Edition | DOS, Windows, OS/2, Linux (SUSE, Xubuntu), OpenSolaris (Belenix) | Proprietary |
|---|
| Windows Virtual PC | Connectix | x86, x86-64 with Intel VT-x or AMD-V | x86 | Windows 7 | Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 | Proprietary |
|---|
| Virtual PC 7 for Mac | Connectix | PowerPC | x86 | Mac OS X | Windows, OS/2, Linux | Proprietary |
|---|
| VirtualLogix VLX | VirtualLogix | ARM, TI DSP C6000, x86, Intel VT-x, Intel VT-d, PowerPC | Same as host | No host OS | Linux, Windows XP, C5, VxWorks, Nucleus, DSP/BIOS, proprietary | Proprietary |
|---|
| Virtual Server 2005 R2 | Connectix | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | Windows Server 2003, 2008, XP (Requires IIS) | Windows NT, 2000, 2003, 2008, Linux (Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu) | Proprietary |
|---|
| Synopsys (CoWare) Virtual Platform | CoWare | x86, x86-64, SPARC v9 | Devices including (multi) cores from ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, Toshiba MeP, Renesas SH, Texas Instruments, Tensilica, ZSP | Windows, Linux, Solaris | Depends on guest CPU; includes: Linux (various flavors), µITRON (various flavors), Windows CE, Symbian, more | Proprietary |
|---|
| Virtuozzo | SWsoft, now Parallels, Inc. | x86, IA-64, x86-64 | x86, IA-64, x86-64 | Linux, Windows | Linux, Windows | Proprietary |
|---|
| VMware ESX Server | VMware | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | No host OS | Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, OSx86 (as FreeBSD), virtual appliances, Netware, OS/2, SCO, BeOS, Haiku, Darwin, others: runs arbitrary OS[8] | Proprietary |
|---|
| VMware ESXi | VMware | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | No host OS | Same as VMware ESX Server | Proprietary |
|---|
| VMware Fusion | VMware | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | Mac OS X x86 | Same as VMware ESX Server | Proprietary |
|---|
| VMware Server | VMware | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | Windows, Linux | Same as VMware ESX Server | Proprietary |
|---|
| VMware Workstation 7.1 | VMware | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | Windows, Linux | Same as VMware ESX Server | Proprietary |
|---|
| VMware Player 3.1 | VMware | x86, x86-64 | x86, x86-64 | Windows, Linux | Same as VMware ESX Server | Proprietary, free of charge for personal non-commercial use[9][10] |
|---|
| Wind River Hypervisor | Wind River | x86, x86-64, PowerPC, ARM | Same as host | No host OS | Linux, VxWorks, unmodified guests (including MS Windows and RTOSes such ach OSE, QNX and others), bare metal virtual board | Proprietary |
|---|
| Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform | Wind River | PowerPC | Same as host | No host OS | VxWorks, bare metal virtual board | Proprietary | | Xen | Xensource | x86, x86-64, IA-64 | Same as host | NetBSD, Linux, Solaris | FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, Solaris, Windows XP & 2003 Server (needs vers. 3.0 and an Intel VT-x (Vanderpool) or AMD-V (Pacifica)-capable CPU), Plan 9 | GPL |
|---|
| XtratuM | Universidad Politecnica de Valencia | x86, x86; SPARC v8 LEON2/3 | Same as host | No host OS | GPOS: Linux, RTOS: PartiKle, RTEMS | GPL |
|---|
| Xvisor | Anup Patel | ARMv5, ARMv7A | Same as host | No host OS | GPOS: Linux (unmodified), RTOS: AtomThreads (unmodified) | GPL |
|---|
| z/VM | IBM | z/Architecture | z/Architecture, z/VM does not run on predecessor mainframes | No host OS, itself (single or multiple levels/versions deep, e.g. VM/ESA running in z/VM 4.4 in z/VM 5.2 in z/VM 5.1.) | Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM, VM/CMS, MUSIC/SP, OpenSolaris for System z, predecessors | Proprietary |
|---|
| z LPARs | IBM | z/Architecture | z/Architecture | Integrated in firmware of System z mainframes | Linux on zSeries, z/OS, z/VSE, z/TPF, z/VM, MUSIC/SP, and predecessors | Integrated in firmware of System z mainframes |
|---|
| Name | Creator | Host CPU | Guest CPU | Host OS(s) | Guest OS(s) | License |
|---|
Features|
| Containers, or Zones | Yes, over 500-way on current systems | No | Uses native device drivers | Operating system-level virtualization | Server consolidation with workload isolation, single workload containment, hosting, dev/test/prod | Near native | Yes |
|---|
| Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 | Yes, up to 4 VCPUs per VM | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test, desktop virtualization, cloud computing | Up to near native[citation needed][4] | Yes |
|---|
| OpenVZ | Yes | No | Compatible | Operating system-level virtualization | Virtualized server isolation | Up to near native[citation needed][5] | ? |
|---|
| KVM | Yes[11] | Yes | Yes | AMD-V and Intel-VT-x | Virtualized server isolation, server/desktop consolidation, software development, cloud computing, other purposes | Up to near native[citation needed][6] | Yes, Look at RedHat or Novell for details |
|---|
| Linux-VServer | Yes | No | Compatible | Operating system-level virtualization | Virtualized server isolation and security, server consolidation, cloud computing | Up to near native[citation needed][7] | Yes |
|---|
| Oracle VM Server for x86 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Paravirtualization and hardware virtualization | Server consolidation and security, enterprise and business deployment | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| Oracle VM Server for SPARC | Yes | Yes, but needs porting[12] | Yes | Paravirtualization and hardware virtualization | Server consolidation and security, enterprise and business deployment | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| OVPsim | Yes | Yes | ? | Full system simulation with optional component virtualization | Software development (early, embedded), advanced debug for single and multicore software, compiler and other tool development, computer architecture research, hobbyist | Depends on target architecture (full and slow hardware emulation for guests incompatible with host)[citation needed] | Yes, with commercial license from Imperas[13] |
|---|
| PikeOS | Yes | Yes, but modifications required as paravirtualization is used | Yes | Paravirtualization | Safety and security critical embedded systems. | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| RTS Hypervisor | Yes | Yes | Yes, standard device drivers can be used without porting.[14] | Virtualization in two modes: full virtualization and paravirtualization; guest OS can run in different modes concurrently[citation needed] | x86 based devices; focus is on real-time uses | Depends on guest[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| ScaleMP vSMP Foundation | Yes, up to 8,192 CPUs and 64 TB per VM[citation needed] | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Server consolidation, Cloud computing | ?[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| Safe Virtual Machine Altreonic | Not applicable | Runs on any OS | OpenComRTOS all services | Interpreter | Executes binary code on any embedded processor, diagnostics, dynamic code loading, 3KB code size | Depends on application[citation needed] but slow due to its interpreting nature | Yes | | Simics | Yes | Yes | Yes | Full system simulation of processors, MMUs, devices, disks, memories, networks, etc. | Software development, advanced debug for single and multicore software, compiler and other tool development, computer architecture research, bug transportation, automated testing, system architecture, long-term support of safety-critical systems, early hardware availability, virtual prototyping | Depends on host machine and target architecture. Runs at near-native speeds for x86-on-x86 using VT-x, cross-simulation of other architectures can be faster or slower than real-time depending on how fast the target is and how big the target is (number of processors, number of target machines, and how much the simulation can be parallelized) | Yes |
|---|
| Sun xVM Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Paravirtualization and porting or hardware virtualization | Servers, Development | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| SVISTA 2004 | No | ? | ? | ? | Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation | ? | ? |
|---|
| TRANGO | Yes | Yes[8] | Yes | Paravirtualization and porting or hardware virtualization | Mob. phone, STB, routers, etc. | Near native[9][citation needed] | ? |
|---|
| User Mode Linux | ? | No | special guest kernel+modules required | Porting | Developer (as a separate machine for a server or with X11 networking) | Non-significantly slower than native [10] (all calls to kernel are proxied)[citation needed] | ? |
|---|
| Oracle VirtualBox | Yes | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Business workstation, server consolidation, service continuity, developer, hobbyist | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes (with commercial license) |
|---|
| Virtual Iron 3.1 | Yes, up to 8 way | Yes | Yes | Native virtualization | Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test | ? | Yes |
|---|
| Virtual PC 2007 | No | Yes | Yes | Virtualization, guest calls trapping where supported | Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation | Up to near native[citation needed] with virtual machine additions | ? |
|---|
| Windows Virtual PC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Hardware virtualization | Developer, Business workstation, support for Compatibility with Windows XP applications | Up to near native[citation needed] with virtual machine additions | No |
|---|
| Virtual PC 7 for Mac | No | Yes | Yes | dynamic recompilation (guest calls trapping where supported) | Hobbyist, Developer, Business workstation | Slow[citation needed] | ? |
|---|
| Virtual Server 2005 R2 | No | Yes | Yes | Virtualization (guest calls trapping where supported) | Server, server farm | Up to near native with virtual machine additions but slower than with hypervisor due to proxied calls[citation needed] | ? |
|---|
| CoWare Virtual Platform | Yes | Yes | Yes ( Same compiled Software image as for the real device) | Full-system virtualization (Processor Core ISA + Hardware + External connections) | Early embedded software development and integration (from driver to application), Multi-core software debugging and optimization | Depending on the system characteristics and the software itself, ranges from faster than real time to slow[citation needed]. | Yes |
|---|
| Virtuozzo | Yes | No | Compatible | Operating system-level virtualization | Server consolidation, service continuity, disaster recovery, service providers | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| VMware ESX Server 4.0 (vSphere) | Yes, add-on, up to 8 way | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test, cloud computing | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| VMware ESX Server 3.0 | Yes, add-on, up to 4 way | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| VMware ESX Server 2.5.3 | Yes, add-on, 2 way | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Server consolidation, service continuity, dev/test | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| VMware Fusion | Yes | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Hobbyist, Developer, Tester, Business workstation | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| VMware Server | Yes (2-way) | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Server/desktop consolidation, dev/test | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| VMware Workstation 6.0 | Yes (2-way) | Yes | Yes | Paravirtualization (VMI) and virtualization | Technical professional, advanced dev/test, trainer | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| VMware Player 2.0 | Yes (2-way) | Yes | Yes | Virtualization | Technical professional, advanced dev/test, trainer, end user on prebuilt machines | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| Wind River hypervisor | No | Yes | Yes | Paravirtualization, hardware assisted virtualization | Embedded, safety critical, secure | Up to near native[citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| Wind River VxWorks MILS Platform | No | Yes | Yes | Paravirtualization, hardware assisted virtualization | Embedded, safety critical, secure | ? | Yes |
|---|
| Xen[15] | Yes, v4.0.0: up to 128 VCPUs per VM | No, bare hypervisor | Yes | Paravirtualization and porting or hardware virtualization. Runs on x86, ARM. | Virtualized server isolation, server/desktop consolidation, software development, cloud computing, other purposes. Xen powers most public cloud services and many hosting services, such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Hosting and Linode. | Up to native[11][citation needed] | Yes |
|---|
| XtratuM | Yes | No | Yes | Paravirtualization | Embedded, safety critical, secure | ? | Yes |
|---|
| Xvisor | No | Yes | Yes | Full virtualization and Hardware assisted virtualization | Embedded systems | Up to near native | No |
|---|
| z/VM | 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) | Servers | Near Native[12] | Yes |
|---|
| z LPARs | Yes, both real and virtual (guest perceives more CPUs than installed), incl. dynamic CPU provisioning and reassignment; up to 64 real cores | Yes | Yes, but not required | Microcode and hardware hypervisor | Servers | Native: System z machines always run with at least one LPAR | Yes |
|---|
| Name | Guest OS SMP available | Runs arbitrary OS | Supported guest OS drivers | Method of operation | 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 slowdowns 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[16] for a paper comparing performance of paravirtualization approaches (e.g. Xen) with OS-level virtualization
- ^ Requires patches/recompiling.
- ^ Exceptional for lightweight, paravirtualized, single-user VM/CMS interactive shell: largest customers run several thousand users on even single prior models. For multiprogramming OSes like Linux on zSeries and z/OS that make heavy use of native supervisor state instructions, performance will vary depending on nature of workload but is near native. Hundreds into the low thousands of Linux guests are possible on a single machine for certain workloads.
Other features- ^ Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 have limited support for redirecting the USB protocol over RDP using RemoteFX.[26]
- ^ Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 adds accelerated graphics support for certain editions of Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1 using RemoteFX.[27][28]
RestrictionsThis table is meant to outline restrictions in the software dictated by licensing or capabilities. |
| Containers, or Zones | 144 cores / 72 CPUs[29] | 4 TB | No limit | 8191 | No limit | No limit | No limit | No limit |
|---|
| VMware Player 4.0[30] | 4 cores[31][32] | No limit | N/A | ? | 8 | 8 GB (32-bit); 64 GB (64-bit) | ? | 2 TB |
|---|
| VMware Server 2.0[33] | 16 CPUs | No limit | N/A | 64 | 2 | 8 GB | 4 IDE; 60 SCSI | 950 GB |
|---|
| VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 4.1[34] | 160 logical cores | 1 TB | 2 TB minus 512 bytes | 320 | 8 | 255 GB | 4 IDE; 60 SCSI | 2 TB minus 512 bytes |
|---|
| VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0[35] | 160 logical cores | 2 TB | 64 TB | 512 | 32 | 1 TB | 4 IDE; 60 SCSI | 2 TB minus 512 bytes |
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| VirtualBox 4.1.x | 256 logical cores (Windows version limited to 64)[36] | No limit | No limit | No limit[37] | 32 | 1 TB[38] | 4 IDE; no limit for SATA, SCSI, SAS | 2 TB[39] |
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| Hyper-V Server 2008 R2[40] | 64 cores / 8 CPUs[41] | 1 TB | No limit | 384 | 4 | 64 GB | 4 IDE; 256 SCSI | 2 TB |
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| Hyper-V Server 2012[42] | 320 cores / 64 CPUs | 4 TB | No limit | 1024 | 64 | 1 TB | 4 IDE; 256 SCSI | 64 TB |
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Note: No limit means no enforced limit. For example, a VM with 1 TB of memory cannot fit in a host with only 8 GB memory and no memory swap disk, so it will have a limit of 8 GB physically. See also References External links |
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