What is processor virtualization in simple words and how to enable it? How to enable virtual technology. What is Intel Virtualization Technology?

Directly. The guest system is independent of the host platform architecture and virtualization platform implementation.

Hardware virtualization provides performance comparable to that of a non-virtualized machine, giving virtualization the ability to practical use and entails its wide distribution. The most common virtualization technologies are Intel -VT and AMD -V.

Intel VT (Intel Virtualization Technology)

VT-x

Previously known as code name"Vanderpool", VT-x is Intel's virtualization technology on the x86 platform. On November 13, 2005, Intel released two Pentium models 4 (models 662 and 672), which were the first processors to support VT-x. VT-x support flag - “vmx”; on Linux it is checked with the command cat /proc/cpuinfo, on Mac OS X - sysctl machdep.cpu.features.

Intel began incorporating Extended Page Table (EPT) virtualization technology for page tables, starting with the Nehalem architecture processors released in 2008.

Starting with the Haswell architecture, announced in 2013, Intel began to include VMCS shading- technology that accelerates nested virtualization of hypervisors. VMCS- virtual machine control structure(virtual machine control structure) - a data structure in memory that exists in exactly one copy per virtual machine and managed by a hypervisor. With each execution context change between different VMs, the VMCS data structure is restored for the current virtual machine, defining the state of the VM's virtual processor. If more than one hypervisor is used, or if nested hypervisors are used, multiple shading of the VMCS is necessary. Hardware shading support makes VMSC management more efficient.

VT-d

VT-d(Virtualization technology for directed I/O) is an I/O virtualization technology created by Intel Corporation in addition to its compute virtualization technology (), codenamed Vanderpool. I/O virtualization allows you to pass-through devices on the PCI bus (and more modern similar buses) to the guest OS, so that it can work with it using its standard tools. To make this possible, the logic circuits on the motherboard use a special input/output memory management unit (IOMMU), which works similar to the MMU. central processor, using page tables and a special DMA mapping table (DMA remapping table - DMAR), which the hypervisor receives from the BIOS via ACPI. DMA mapping is necessary because the hypervisor knows nothing about the specifics of how the device works with memory at physical addresses that are known only to the driver. Using DMAR, it creates mapping tables so that the guest OS driver sees virtual IOMMU addresses in the same way as it would see physical ones without it and the hypervisor.

Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) is the next important step towards comprehensive hardware support for platform virtualization on Intel based. VT-d expands possibilities Virtualization technologies Technology (VT), existing in IA-32 (VT-x) and Itanium (VT-i), and adds support for virtualization of new I/O devices.

Hardware support

Software support

The Xen hypervisor supports DMAR since version 3.3 for hardware-virtualized domains. For paravirtual domains, DMA mapping is not required.
Support for Oracle VirtualBox software technology is announced in the near future.
The Linux kernel has experimentally supported DMAR since version 2.6.28, which allows the embedded hypervisor (kvm) to give virtual machines access to PCI devices.
Intel VT-d support is available in Parallels Workstation 4.0 Extreme and Parallels Server 4 Bare Metal

Hello everyone In your motherboard BIOS you can find something like Intel Virtualization Technology and then you will immediately have questions, whether to enable it or not? What is this actually responsible for, what the hell, and if you turn it on, then maybe the computer will work better? Yes, there can be a lot of thoughts, when I was hacking away at the computer, studying everything, there were also a lot of thoughts, like, what will happen if...

In short, I’ll say right away that I know what Intel Virtualization Technology is, but I’ll also say that in most cases you don’t need to enable it. Neither you nor your friends, well, something tells me that this technology you don't really need it. Why do you think this? Okay, I'll tell you. This means Intel Virtualization Technology is a virtualization technology so that some software can work directly with the processor, so to speak.

You are probably asking, what other software? Here I mean computer virtualization programs, in simple terms these are virtual machines, so far the most popular are paid VMware Workstation(by the way there is free option This VMware Player) and absolutely free VirtualBox. They say that the first is a virtual machine, and the second is an emulator. But I don't really understand the difference

Here's what this option looks like in the BIOS itself:

So, ordinary users don’t need Intel Virtualization Technology for nothing, it doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t add any power. You might be wondering what a virtual machine is, what is it even? This is a program that simulates a computer, but it is virtual. Here you can install Windows in it, add hard drive or delete, set the number of processor cores, specify the volume RAM. Do you understand? But for such a virtual computer to work quickly, you need some virtual access to the processor, to provide this access Intel Virtualization Technology is needed

As you already understand, this technology is found in Intel processors, but AMD also has its own, it’s called AMD-V and it’s about the same as Intel’s. Virtual machines without this technology will work terribly slowly. In general, Intel Virtualization Technology is divided into two parts, these are VT-x and VT-d, that is, if you see such designations, now you know what it is. I already wrote about what VT-x and VT-d are here, so you’re welcome to read.

Virtualization technology can improve your computer's performance and allow Nox App Player run more smoothly and quickly.

1. Does your computer support virtualization technology (VT)?

To check if your computer can support VT, simply download LeoMoon CPU-V. This will not only detect whether your processor can support hardware virtualization, but will also detect whether Hardware Virtualization is enabled in the BIOS or not.

If the test result shows green tick Under VT-x Supported, this means that your computer supports virtualization. If it is a red X, then your computer does not support VT, but you can still install Nox under the installation requirements.

1.If the test result shows a green checkmark under VT-x enabled, then this means that VT is already enabled in your BIOS. If it is a red X, then follow these steps to enable it.

2. Determine your BIOS type: Press Win + R to open the “Run” window, type “DXDiag” and click the “OK” button. After this you will see BIOS information, as shown in the figure below.

3.Then find on Google what exactly needs to be done to enable VT for this specific BIOS. Typically, to enter the BIOS you have to press a certain key several times when your computer boots. The assigned key can be any function key or ESC key depending on the brand of your computer. After logging in BIOS mode, look for VT-x, Intel Virtual Technology or something similar that says "Virtual" and turn it on. After that, turn off your computer, then turn it on again. Virtualization is now enabled and Nox performance App Player got even better.

Attention!!!

If you are running Windows 8 or Windows 10, there may be a conflict between VT and Microsoft Hyper-V technology. Please disable Hyper-V by following these steps: Go to Control Panel->Programs and Features->Turn it on or off Windows functions> uncheck the Hyper-V box.

2.If VT is enabled in the BIOS, but the LeMoon scan result still shows a red cross under VT-x Enabled, then there is a high possibility that your antivirus is blocking this function. For example, let's take Avast antivirus! What you need to do to solve this problem:

1) Open Avast antivirus >> Settings >> Troubleshooting

2)Uncheck Enable virtualization with hardware, then restart your computer.

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Hello friends! IN lately, the giants of the IT industry, as if with a painted bag, are rushing around with the idea of virtualization. Like, this is so cool that any office PC should have processor virtualization. Why this technology is needed, how it works and whether you need it specifically, I’ll tell you in today’s publication.

From this article you will learn:

Virtualization Technology

The term sounds like the name of some secret laboratory inventing infernal machines to enslave humanity for its further integration into the Matrix. In the case of a processor, it's much more boring - just providing a part computing power, for a specific task or several at once.

The peculiarity is that a special environment is created for them - a kind of “sandbox”, the processes in which cannot in any way affect the system as a whole, but can access the processor directly, bypassing intermediaries in the form of the main OS and all related services.

Today, region practical application, these technologies are developing in three directions:

View Virtualization

The terminal server provides its power to the user, and he also performs client application, and only the calculation results are displayed on the user’s device. This is convenient because the requirements for client software and hardware are significantly reduced and security is increased.

As terminal equipment, you can even use budget smartphone. The disadvantage is that the hardware requirements for servers increase significantly, as they have to perform more calculations. The most famous example of this way of using this technology is browser-based multiplayer games.

Device virtualization

This is the name given to imitation of computer hardware, strictly given parameters. On such virtual computer You can install your own OS and run applications using it.

The technology is widely used for testing purposes: before release, the program is always checked for different devices, if necessary, optimizing and fixing bugs.
An example of use is an Android emulator: a separate virtual device is created with its own OS, which can be used both for entertainment and for testing the functionality of applications.

Application Virtualization

The program runs in an isolated environment and has no contact with the “outside world”, so it does not conflict or harm other applications. In the same way you can run different versions the same program.

Example of using technology – secure browsers, which often go to software package as an add-on to many antiviruses. Even when visiting malicious sites, the infection that breeds there cannot enter the operating system.

Do you need this

Why does the average user need such a wonderful technology, what does it give and does it give at all? By and large, there is no need, and support for virtualization in a home PC processor is more of a tribute to trends than an urgent need.

Virtualization tasks that may arise are handled perfectly by software. If your PC processor does not support virtualization, do not rush to upgrade. Most likely, you do not need this technology at all.

Meanwhile, technology today provides support and widely introduces both pillars on which production rests computer processors– Intel and AMD. Naturally, purchasing such a device will cost more – and not because it is technically much more complex.

The point is marketing - for virtualization support, some are ready to shell out extra money, not really understanding what they want to sell them.

How to enable virtualization

You can activate this option in the BIOS (provided that it is not enabled initially). How to enable: when restarting the computer, press the Del or F2 button (most often, on some motherboards the button may be different) and find the Virtualization Technology item in the menu.
Where exactly to look depends on the model and BIOS version. You should select the Enabled option and, after saving the changes, restart the computer.

Contrary to popular belief, base frequency or the multiplication factor does not increase, the computer does not become more powerful and programs that previously worked with glitches and brakes do not begin to “fly” - the number in which processor performance is measured does not increase and additional cores are not formed.

The difference can only be felt when you run the guest OS in your familiar environment. It will work quickly, thanks to direct access virtual OS to processor resources, which is what virtualization should provide.

I already mentioned in this article Android emulators. Yes it is virtual devices with support for a virtual OS, so for their normal operation, virtualization support is still necessary. Otherwise, even simple applications will slow down wildly - just like Android itself, running in the Windows environment.

Emulators deserve special mention because they have become very popular recently. Despite the fact that almost every family already has a tablet and several smartphones, some games are more convenient to play using a keyboard and mouse - for example, PUBG Mobile.

However, this applies exclusively to old-school gamers. To the generation that grew up on games for touch devices, playing shooters is still more convenient on tablets and smartphones.

When working with software product VirtualBox virtualization, problems and malfunctions often arise related to the installation of this or that on a virtual machine operating system. The reasons for errors in operation may be different and with one of them, which states that "hardware acceleration(VT-x AMD-V) is not available on your system", we will understand in this article.

IN in this case, this problem arose when installing the operating system windows systems 8, although when Windows 7 was installed, such an error did not occur. How can we decide this problem? Let's find out below.

So, first of all we need to make sure that the processor supports the function VT-x/AMD-V, for this read the article How to check if your processor supports hardware virtualization Intel VT-x/VT-d and AMD-V. And to enable it, you need to go to Motherboard BIOS fees. To do this, reboot the computer and go to the BIOS of our system.

In order to go to BIOS, we need to press a key when turning on the computer Delete on the keyboard. (If it does not enter using the key delete try it F1, F2) When you turn on the computer, you can usually see on the start screen which key leads to BIOS.

As a result, we get into the BIOS of our computer. Next, select the tab " Advanced". There we see the tab " CPU Configuration" select it and press " Enter"

We get to the configuration menu, where we see the tab "Secure Virtual Machine Mode" opposite is the value "Disabled" what does disabled mean, we just need to enable it, to do this, click on the tab and select the value "Enabled".

As we see in the figure, the value has changed, now we need to save the changes made.

To save the changes made, go to the tab "Exit" then select the tab "Exit & Save Changes". In the window that opens, where we are asked to save changes made, press "OK" and wait until the computer reboots.

Next we open VirtualBox program, go to " settings" the system that you wanted to install, in my case it is Windows 8.1. Click on the tab " system", further "acceleration", check the boxes next to the items indicated in the picture and click "OK."