As with most anything of value the sum of whole is usually worth more than any of the given parts and so to it is with virtualization and multicore processors.
One of the major potential benefits of multicore processors is, at least in theory, to run multiple instances of an environment on the same client. For example, a user could opt to run Windows XP on one processor and Vista on another or run Vista on one processor while using another to run Linux.
Perhaps even more intriguing is the simple concept of running multiple instances of the same operating system with different application use cases in mind. For example, an IT organization could deploy a locked down version of Vista on one set of processors while the user ran their personal applications on another instance of Vista. This would then limit the ability of malware that infected the user personal applications from affecting the corporate environment that is running on a separate set of processors.
A lot of that kind of thinking is driving a new virtualization offering for the client from a company called Neocleus, which is based in Israel but now has offices in Jersey City, N.J.
The virtual machine used by Neocleus is based on an open source implementation of Xen. Neocleus has developed what it calls a desktop hypervisor framework for managing what are known as Type 1 hypervisor implementations installed on top of bare metal processors.
Neocleus is hoping that manufacturers will implement the hypervisor framework that Neocleus is contributing back to the Xen community in order to expand the number of systems in the marketplace that could effectively be used to deliver multiple personalities. Neocleus hopes to make money by delivering an appliance that will manage those clients.
Longer term, the implications of virtualization on bare metal are significant for two reasons. The first is that it might push the deployment of agents outside of the operating system environments. For example, Symantec is already working with Intel on embedding anti-malware software with Intel processors. From that location, the Symantec agent software could be used across multiple environments running on different processors on the same machine. In effect, this would go a long way towards more effectively dealing with all the agents that are now fighting to get a share of the operating system environment.
The second impact of all this would be to make it more feasible for companies to think about letting employees use their own machines for work rather than requiring them to use machines from corporate that are almost never as good as the machines they use at home. The corporate environment on those machines could much more easily be kept pristine if the machine being deployed supported Type 1 virtualization.
The Neocleus announcement is only the latest in a raft of virtualization on the desktop initiatives that has included announcements from Citrix, MokaFive, Quamranet, Pano Logic and Wyse Technology. It's too early to say how all this will play out given the unspecified client virtualization ambitions of Microsoft and VMware on the desktop, but one thing that is for certain is that virtualization on the client is most definitely going to change how we think about personal computers.