Virtualization Features in laptop BIOS

[Tony_Cappellini]

My Toshiba Tecra M9 has a Virtualization feature in the BIOS.

I've enabled it hoping it would enhance the operations of Worksation 6.

My previous laptop was a Tecra M5- also had a similar feature. I had enabled it, and installed Parallels (a competitive product to VMWare)- but Parallels always displays "There is a virtualization feature in the BIOS which is not enabled. Please enable it"

VMware workstation never had any problems with that Bios, but I could not run Parallels.

Does anyone know what these virtualization features in the BIOS does- for VMWare?

[Peter_vm]

With right type of CPU, you can run 64-bit guests.

[Tony_Cappellini]

But can I not do that even without the Virtualization feature enabled?

My laptop has a Core 2 Duo

[Iwan_Rahabok]

Mine (Lenovo ThinkPad T61, 1 month old) has it too. It should help in CPU virtualisation.

I'm using WS 6, not 6.5 beta. My host is XP Pro SP2 (not Vista), guest is also XP Pro SP2.

I tried with and without the virtualisation. Can't really tell a difference as far as performance goes.

[RDPetruska]

Tony, after changing the virtualization setting in the BIOS, you must do a cold boot for the change to take effect.

[Tony_Cappellini]

Thnaks.

And when the system is cold booted after the Virtualization feature is enabled, what is the expected result?

Is it really noticable?

[RDPetruska]

The expected result is that you will be able to run 64-bit guests.

VMware's binary translation technology has 10-plus years of experience improving and optimizing behind it. In general it runs better than the VT-enabled code. Other vendors may not have the same resuls.

[Peter_vm]

Or, to summarize, enabling VT would not enhance performance of 32-bit guests at all.

[admin]

This story is beginning to change as VT hardware evolves. If your system has a Penryn/Harpertown CPU, you might find that VT offers better performance than binary translation, depending on your application. (I don't know if mobile Penryns are showing up in laptops yet.) For older Intel processors, binary translation usually wins.

[Peter_vm]

Do you have any numbers to show, or it is just a speculation (educated guess)?

[admin]

I don't have any numbers to reveal at this time. However, note that based on our internal performance measurements, Workstation 6.5 will default to using VT for some 32-bit guests on more recent Intel processors.

[Peter_vm]

Since you have said "internal", I assume this information is for your eyes only.

[admin]

Sorry; yes. We don't have anything prepared for external publication at the moment.