General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

View: New views
5 Messages — Rating Filter:   Alert me  

General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

by kc8ldo :: Rate this Message:

Reply to Author | View Threaded | Show Only this Message

Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
to go.

Also are there extra "features" supported under the various open source
virtualization systems, KVM and Xen, under one manufacture but not the other
of any real significance?

73's

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@...
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

by Chris Adams :: Rate this Message:

Reply to Author | View Threaded | Show Only this Message

Once upon a time, KC8LDO <kc8ldo@...> said:
> Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
> heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
> to go.

As far as functionality, I believe they are pretty much equivalent.

If you are buying a desktop and want virtualization, then (the last time
I looked), almost all (if not all) AMD CPUs have hw-virt extensions,
while Intel seems to reserve it for the higher-end (read: more
expensive) CPUs.

> Also are there extra "features" supported under the various open source
> virtualization systems, KVM and Xen, under one manufacture but not the
> other of any real significance?

KVM is essentially a driver for the hw-virt CPU extensions, so of course
it supports them. :-)  Xen also supports hw-virt I believe.

--
Chris Adams <cmadams@...>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@...
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

by Kam Leo :: Rate this Message:

Reply to Author | View Threaded | Show Only this Message

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Chris Adams <cmadams@...> wrote:

> Once upon a time, KC8LDO <kc8ldo@...> said:
>> Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
>> heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
>> to go.
>
> As far as functionality, I believe they are pretty much equivalent.
>
> If you are buying a desktop and want virtualization, then (the last time
> I looked), almost all (if not all) AMD CPUs have hw-virt extensions,
> while Intel seems to reserve it for the higher-end (read: more
> expensive) CPUs.

Newer steppings of some Intel processors, e.g. E7400 and Q8300, now
have VT enabled. Check http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx to verify if
the processor you're interested has VT.

[snip]

--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@...
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

by Bill Davidsen :: Rate this Message:

Reply to Author | View Threaded | Show Only this Message

Chris Adams wrote:

> Once upon a time, KC8LDO <kc8ldo@...> said:
>> Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
>> heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
>> to go.
>
> As far as functionality, I believe they are pretty much equivalent.
>
> If you are buying a desktop and want virtualization, then (the last time
> I looked), almost all (if not all) AMD CPUs have hw-virt extensions,
> while Intel seems to reserve it for the higher-end (read: more
> expensive) CPUs.
>
If you are going to do anything but play with VM you will probably have one with
hardware VM support. The prices are not Celeron (<$100) prices, but they are
only $100-150 more from Intel. I have some of each, at one time the AMD did a
better job of real mode handling, I still have a need to run Win-95 in a VM, and
it does way too much in real mode. Haven't tried it on recent Intel, I leave
well enough alone.

>> Also are there extra "features" supported under the various open source
>> virtualization systems, KVM and Xen, under one manufacture but not the
>> other of any real significance?
>
> KVM is essentially a driver for the hw-virt CPU extensions, so of course
> it supports them. :-)  Xen also supports hw-virt I believe.
>
It does, but unless I missed something, Fedora doesn't support Xen, because the
patches needed aren't in the mainline kernel and took too much effort to
maintain. I have RHEL, so it's not an issue for me.

I would say right now that Intel has the edge in performance per watt, if power
use and heat are an issue at all. Other than that, not an issue. But be sure the
BIOS doesn't disable the VM capability, some vendors do that.

--
Bill Davidsen <davidsen@...>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot

--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@...
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

by Chris Adams :: Rate this Message:

Reply to Author | View Threaded | Show Only this Message

Once upon a time, Bill Davidsen <davidsen@...> said:
> It does, but unless I missed something, Fedora doesn't support Xen, because
> the patches needed aren't in the mainline kernel and took too much effort
> to maintain. I have RHEL, so it's not an issue for me.

Fedora kernels can run as Xen domU para-virtualized, but Fedora doesn't
include a dom0 kernel (that is still not in the upstream source).
--
Chris Adams <cmadams@...>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

--
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@...
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines