4 ms·

There's a lot that's wrong in here, but one thing that absolutely needs to be called out: ...things like Xen and VMware are not really new. IBM invented virtua

There's a lot that's wrong in here, but one thing that absolutely needs to be called out: ...things like Xen and VMware are not really new. IBM invented virtualization back in the middle ages Actually and in fact, what VMware did was new -- to the point that prior to this work, many reasonable people believed that x86 couldn't be virtualized without unacceptable performance penalty. Please read Keith and Ole's excellent ASPLOS paper[1] for an in-depth discussion of the novelty -- and the citation for this technology when it won the ACM Software Systems Award[2]. If you insist that VMware's binary translation work wasn't novel, please be specific about how these peer-reviewed bodies got it wrong. [1] https://www.vmware.com/pdf/asplos235_adams.pdf https://www.vmware.com/pdf/asplos235_adams.pdf [2] http://awards.acm.org/award_winners/bugnion_3886645.cfm http://awards.acm.org/award_winners/bugnion_3886645.cfm

mcguire 12y ago
The ACM citation indicates that virtualization was first explored in the 1960s; Adams and Agesen's paper cites a 1974 paper: "Popek and Goldberg's 1974 paper [19] establishes three essential characteristics for system software to be considered a VMM:[...] In 1974 a particular VMM implementation style, trap-and-emulate, was so prevalent as to be considered the only practical method for virtualization.... We review basic obstacles to [trap-and-emulate] of the x86 architecture and explain how binary translation (BT) overcomes the obstacles..." In other words, the contribution of that work was an implementation technique for virtualization. In fact, that particular paper exists to compare binary translation to trap-and-emulate hardware support that had recently been added to the x86 architecture. Their conclusion is that sometimes one is better, sometimes the other. Look, I'm not saying binary translation wasn't new, or that it didn't change the face of computing as she is known---which is what the award was given for: "VMware Workstation 1.0 spurred a shift to virtual-machine-based architectures, allowing users to efficiently run multiple operating systems on their desktops [, and allow] large-scale data-center operators [to] increase the efficient and safe use of shared computational resources." I'm not even arguing that it didn't open up cool new research areas; I'm going to go play with unikernals as soon as I get a chance. (Even though that is a return to pre-timesharing systems.) But we're still talking about using virtualization to run legacy operating systems on modern hardware. Just like VM/370. init cms

mcguire 12y ago

The ACM citation indicates that virtualization was first explored in the 1960s; Adams and Agesen's paper cites a 1974 paper: "Popek and Goldberg's 1974 paper [19] establishes three essential characteristics for system software to be considered a VMM:[...] In 1974 a particular VMM implementation style, trap-and-emulate, was so prevalent as to be considered the only practical method for virtualization.... We review basic obstacles to [trap-and-emulate] of the x86 architecture and explain how binary translation (BT) overcomes the obstacles..." In other words, the contribution of that work was an implementation technique for virtualization. In fact, that particular paper exists to compare binary translation to trap-and-emulate hardware support that had recently been added to the x86 architecture. Their conclusion is that sometimes one is better, sometimes the other. Look, I'm not saying binary translation wasn't new, or that it didn't change the face of computing as she is known---which is what the award was given for: "VMware Workstation 1.0 spurred a shift to virtual-machine-based architectures, allowing users to efficiently run multiple operating systems on their desktops [, and allow] large-scale data-center operators [to] increase the efficient and safe use of shared computational resources." I'm not even arguing that it didn't open up cool new research areas; I'm going to go play with unikernals as soon as I get a chance. (Even though that is a return to pre-timesharing systems.) But we're still talking about using virtualization to run legacy operating systems on modern hardware. Just like VM/370. init cms