AMD has announced the broad availability of its I/O
virtualisation technology specification.
The technology is available through royalty-free licences that
AMD hopes will encourage its widespread adoption by hardware and
software developers. The technologies under development by AMD will
be built directly into a computer’s I/O bridges.
AMD says its I/O virtualisation technology is designed to extend
the benefits of CPU-assisted virtualisation by addressing the
performance bottlenecks and security issues that can be encountered
when virtualising I/O devices in x86-based servers, desktops and
notebook computers.
The company will share its specification publicly, making it
available through licences across the hardware and software
development community. AMD’s CPU virtualisation technology,
formerly referred to by the code name Pacifica, delivers CPU
efficiencies to traditional software only-based virtualisation
approaches.
AMD is providing mechanisms to support virtualisation software
in managing, partitioning and securing I/O devices, which the
company says will result in improved performance and less
implementation complexity in providing I/O in virtual
environments.
The company’s I/O virtualisation technology should be supported
by all AMD processors in mid-2006, and is also anticipated to be
implemented in chipsets and core logic designed for AMD64-based
platforms in 2006. The AMD I/O virtualisation technology
specification download can be found at
http://developer.amd.com