AMD plans to build security and virtualisation features
into its server processors by 2006.
Fred Weber, AMD's chief technical officer, said two initiatives,
called Pacifica and Presidio, were under way. Pacifica is the
virtualisation technology while Presidio involves security. Weber
did not provide any details about either technology except that
both were expected in 2006.
Insight 64 analyst Nathan Brookwood said that although
virtualisation technology had been used on mainframes and high-end
servers for years, IT departments were also starting to use it on
low-end servers.
IT managers use virtualisation software from companies such as
VMware to create virtual operating environments on servers where
computing resources can be allocated to various tasks based on
changing workloads. The idea is to have multiple applications
running different operating systems from a single server rather
than running the applications and operating systems on separate
servers.
However, this is a demanding task for software, and some
companies like IBM and Sun have built specific hardware
technologies into their Power 5 and UltraSparc chips to offload
some of the virtualisation tasks onto the hardware.
"In order to virtualise technologies within a processor, a
little bit of hardware goes a long way," said Brookwood. "Users
still need virtualisation software, but that software will run much
faster with hardware support."
Neither Intel nor AMD has built such technology into their
processors for low-end servers, but both are now talking about
providing that capability around 2006. Intel has discussed its
Vanderpool virtualisation technology at recent conferences, but
like AMD, has not provided specific details.
Security is a primary concern for many server users and is being
addressed by both hardware and software suppliers. AMD is working
with several partners on the Presidio project. An AMD spokeswoman
said the project would bring hardware-based security to server
chips in 2006, and some features would also be incorporated in PC
chips.
Brookwood said that AMD's Pacifica and Presidio technologies
would probably closely resemble Intel's Vanderpool and LaGrande.
Both companies make chips that work with Microsoft operating
systems, and Microsoft has no interest in developing different
versions of that software for each company's chips.
Tom Krazit writes for IDG News Service