Redmond (WA) – Microsoft has begun public trials of its new virtualization software program, called Hyper-V. That software is designed to go head-to-head with VMware'’s ESX Server. Wall Street quickly responded to the news, with VMware shares dropping 7%, and Microsoft shares increasing 2.8%.

Microsoft’s Hyper-V software is designed to run multiple operating systems simultaneously in what’s called a virtualized environment. Rather than each instance of an operating system running on its own physical hardware, several operating systems will share the same hardware through software emulation of hardware abilities. Intel’s Core 2 CPUs, and AMD’s Athlon X2 CPUs, both contain special hardware instructions which accelerate these features.

Read more … Microsoft’s Hyper-V white paper.


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From Microsoft's website, Hyper-V includes:

A new 64-bit micro-kernelized hypervisor architecture to support a broad array of devices.  Broad support for simultaneously running different types of operating systems, including 32-bit and 64-bit systems across different server platforms, such as Windows and Linux.  Support for up to 4 processors (SMP) in a virtual machine environment enabling multi-threaded applications in the virtual machine.  Support for large memory allocation per virtual machine.  Pass-through disk access and broad support for SAN and internal disk access.  A new virtual service provider/virtual service client (VSP/VSC) architecture.  It includes beta Linux integration components for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 x86 and x64 Editions. These integration components enable Xen-enabled Linux to take advantage of the VSP/VSC architecture and provide improved performance. Beta Linux Integration components are available for immediate download at connect.microsoft.com.  The ability to take snapshots of a running virtual machine.  Support for multiple processors and cores at the host level and improved memory access within virtual machines.  Includes standards-based Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interfaces and APIs.

ah come on!!

Dec 14, 2007 07:15     

What are they at now? i doubt this will be as light as ESX or the new Physical Hypervisor ESX3i
Wanis Elabbar report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I wonder if it will be free like Virtual Server ......

Dec 14, 2007 07:43     

I wonder if it will be free like Virtual Server ... hmmm
Stephen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Practically free: $29

Dec 14, 2007 09:49     

Versions of Windows Server that have Hyper-V are $29 more than their counterparts. This is a simple strategy to avoid bundling concerns in the US and EU. The EU has shown a preference for making MSFT produce versions of Windows no one wants (i.e. without Media Player) so I think MSFT is saving themselves fines and headaches by just "seperating it" up front.
Cgomez report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

It's not entirely free...

Dec 14, 2007 10:12     

It's not exactly free, because it wasn't able to be legally free, thanks to antitrust pressures. You will be able to buy special SKUs of Windows Server 2008 that don't include the Hyper-V addon, and they will be a few dollars cheaper. That's irrelevant, though, because it's a competitor to VMWare's ESX, which most definitely is NOT free. VMware Server (the basic one that is free) is nowhere near as awesome as ESX or as Hyper-V is looking to be.

Opie report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0