AMD Gears Up for Virtualized Desktops
Virtualized servers are the rage. But virtualized desktops could be next. That’s the message from Margaret Lewis, director of commercial ISV marketing at AMD.
Lewis met with The VAR Guy during Linux World in New York on February 14. Instead of talking about new applications optimized for Opteron processors, Lewis spoke quite a bit about AMD’s long-term strategy.
Lewis noted that AMD is working with VMware, XenSource, Novell, Microsoft, Red Hat, Sun and other major ISVs on virtualization technology. In mid-2006, AMD shipped server — and desktop — microprocessors with specialized virtualization hooks.
And sometime this year, when AMD ships its quad-core processors, the chips will include “nested paging” technology, which will allow systems to switch quickly between a guest and host operating system. It’s similar to pre-emptive multitasking in the operating system world, where it’s relatively easy to jump back and forth between applications.
But what about virtualization on the desktop? Although still in its infancy, Lewis believes desktop virtualization will find several niches. She sees strong potential links between virtualization and security. For instance, virtual desktops would provide specific services to specific users–ensuring that finance employees, HR employees and other specialized workers access only the applications for which they are approved.
Lewis also sees third-party vendors designing open “plug ins” to AMD’s hardware designs. Similar to how applications are written for operating systems, this plug-in approach would allow independent hardware vendors (IHVs) to add value to AMD’s own designs.