eltalpa
11-10-2003, 11:33
DA http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994215
Advanced chip opens door to software choice
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09:45_06_October_03
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A computer chip designed to run more than one operating system at a time could break Microsoft's stranglehold on PC software. Plans for the chip were announced last week by Intel, the world's largest maker of processor chips.
Due for launch within five years, the chip will allow future machines to run, say, Windows XP together with Linux or the Apple operating system as easily as today's Windows computers run Word and Internet Explorer simultaneously. Analysts are saying it could be one of the decade's most significant breakthroughs in computer technology.
An operating system (OS) is the software that manages a computer's physical components, including the microprocessor, hard drive and memory. The OS keeps track of how much memory or disc space is available, for instance, and acts as a gatekeeper, allowing programs such as Word access to, say, the hard disc.
Two or more operating systems running on the same hardware would inevitably clash, say, when trying to write data at the same time, causing the system to crash. To get round this, programmers write specialised software that interacts directly with the hardware to create several "virtual machines", each capable of running its own operating system.
It is a tricky task. For example, when an OS queries a Pentium processor about the total memory available, the chip normally informs the OS about all the free memory, rather than the memory allocated to it by the virtualisation software. The virtualisation software sits between the hard drive and the OS and must calculate how much free memory is allocated to that OS.
Codename Vanderpool
Intel's new hardware, codenamed Vanderpool, is significant because it cuts down on the amount of such trickery needed. "Vanderpool doesn't eliminate the need for virtualisation software, but it's going to make it perform a lot better," says Mike Ferron-Jones, Intel's manager of advanced technology marketing at Hillsboro, Oregon. For the moment, however, the company is not saying exactly how it will redesign the hardware to do this.
But the new chip will turn virtualisation software from an unwieldy giant into small and efficient "hyper-OS". Martin Reynolds, vice-president of the technology analysis and consulting firm Gartner, describes it as a "miniature operating system built for robustness and simplicity rather than for flexibility and complexity".
Such a hyper-OS would allow people using ordinary PCs to try out alternative operating systems, such as Linux, and the applications that run on them, without giving up Windows.
The question of who will write and sell virtualisation software is likely to loom large. This year, Microsoft bought Connectix, a company in San Mateo, California, that makes virtualisation software. But the software giant has not yet commented on Vanderpool's implications.
"There's going to be a little bit of a tussle here to see who controls [the market]," Reynolds says. "Microsoft obviously has designs on it. Intel would like to see some kind of open standard, and there might even be a move from the Linux camp to put something in there."
SE FOSSE VERA SAREBBE GROSSA :sofico: !
Advanced chip opens door to software choice
_
09:45_06_October_03
_
A computer chip designed to run more than one operating system at a time could break Microsoft's stranglehold on PC software. Plans for the chip were announced last week by Intel, the world's largest maker of processor chips.
Due for launch within five years, the chip will allow future machines to run, say, Windows XP together with Linux or the Apple operating system as easily as today's Windows computers run Word and Internet Explorer simultaneously. Analysts are saying it could be one of the decade's most significant breakthroughs in computer technology.
An operating system (OS) is the software that manages a computer's physical components, including the microprocessor, hard drive and memory. The OS keeps track of how much memory or disc space is available, for instance, and acts as a gatekeeper, allowing programs such as Word access to, say, the hard disc.
Two or more operating systems running on the same hardware would inevitably clash, say, when trying to write data at the same time, causing the system to crash. To get round this, programmers write specialised software that interacts directly with the hardware to create several "virtual machines", each capable of running its own operating system.
It is a tricky task. For example, when an OS queries a Pentium processor about the total memory available, the chip normally informs the OS about all the free memory, rather than the memory allocated to it by the virtualisation software. The virtualisation software sits between the hard drive and the OS and must calculate how much free memory is allocated to that OS.
Codename Vanderpool
Intel's new hardware, codenamed Vanderpool, is significant because it cuts down on the amount of such trickery needed. "Vanderpool doesn't eliminate the need for virtualisation software, but it's going to make it perform a lot better," says Mike Ferron-Jones, Intel's manager of advanced technology marketing at Hillsboro, Oregon. For the moment, however, the company is not saying exactly how it will redesign the hardware to do this.
But the new chip will turn virtualisation software from an unwieldy giant into small and efficient "hyper-OS". Martin Reynolds, vice-president of the technology analysis and consulting firm Gartner, describes it as a "miniature operating system built for robustness and simplicity rather than for flexibility and complexity".
Such a hyper-OS would allow people using ordinary PCs to try out alternative operating systems, such as Linux, and the applications that run on them, without giving up Windows.
The question of who will write and sell virtualisation software is likely to loom large. This year, Microsoft bought Connectix, a company in San Mateo, California, that makes virtualisation software. But the software giant has not yet commented on Vanderpool's implications.
"There's going to be a little bit of a tussle here to see who controls [the market]," Reynolds says. "Microsoft obviously has designs on it. Intel would like to see some kind of open standard, and there might even be a move from the Linux camp to put something in there."
SE FOSSE VERA SAREBBE GROSSA :sofico: !