Intel, SWsoft in virtualization tech pact
The virtualization start-up will support new Intel processor features, and Intel will help market SWsoft's software.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Virtualization start-up SWsoft announced a partnership with Intel Monday to develop software support for technology built into Intel's newer processors.
SWsoft sells two broad categories of virtualization software, Virtuozzo and Parallels. Virtuozzo makes a single instance of Windows or Linux appear, from the perspective of higher-level software, to software to be subdivided into several independent partitions called containers, and it's chiefly used on servers. Parallels lets multiple operating systems run simultaneously on one PC, most notably letting Windows run on Mac OS X systems.
Through the Intel partnership, announced in conjunction with the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco, SWsoft will support a host of Intel chip features. Those features include VT-d to improve input-output on virtual systems, Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) to make the boot process more secure.
The partnership also includes joint marketing work. It's not the first alliance between the companies: Intel invested in SWsoft in 2005.