Intel Virtualization Technolgy Makes it to Five More Chips
 

In a recent press release, Intel has announced that the Intel VT (Virtualization Technology) feature would be added to five existing desktop processor SKUs. The technology accelerates virtualization software. It will be now added as a feature to Core 2 Quad Q8300, Core 2 Duo models E7400, E7500, Pentium Dual-Core models E5300 and E5400.

The company will release VT-enabled stocks of these processors come June 12. The processors will feature new S-spec and MM number schemes. To support these processors, a BIOS update will be required. The update will merely enable the VT feature and provide an option to toggle it.

Source: TechConnect Magazine

What does VT do ?

i agree, i see it in the bios and i have no idea what it does lol so i just disabled it.

I just read it up and apparently it allows you to run microsoft virtual pc and vmware. I wasn't aware that you needed a specific instruction set to be able to run those programs.

Not generally useful at all unless you run a virtual machine emulation which then allows it to run quicker than not - as some people run virtual xp in vista, vista in xp, etc.

I do run virtual machines thats why I was surprised at this.

You don't need it, all it does is speed things up. I'm not sure about Vmware, but I know Virtual PC emulates something like a 500MHz Pentium(not sure on exact specs). With VT, the virtual machine has direct access to the CPU, so whatever you have in your PC, your Virtual PC has access to also. Of course with Virtual PC, it only gives access to a single core, if you have a multiple core system, but it is still a lot better than whatever the emulated processor is.

It doesn't really affect basic tasks, it is really only helpful for people that do a lot of CPU intensive work in virtual machines.

Thanks for that :) newtekie

Exactly. Also, it's required with some security software to get down to the bottom of things, such as Hypersight (an advanced Rootkit detector).

It also lets you run 64bit virtual machines. That was the big downer for me when i got my e7400 because i assumed it had vt but it didn't so i can only run 32bit vms :banghead:

same thing happened to me. this news comes 3 months too late :banghead:

of course now that i know a lot more about virtualization i realize i dont need to run 64bit VMs as im only giving my VMs 512 megs of ram. still tho, these new chips has the cpu flags needed to run the faster and more sophisticated hypervisors.