Multiple OSes on Dual-Core?

[imported_matthewt]

I've heard a lot about the possiblity of having multiple operating systems running concurrently on dual-core processors (one on each core), my question is, is this feature already available? Or will I have to wait until later revisions are released in AMD's and Intel's product lines that include this feature?

Thanks.

Matthew

 

[interchange]

Not currently available.

There are other resources besides a processor that are shared on a dual core system that two OSs wouldn't get along with.

Interestingly enough, my company has INTEGRITY PC, a product which uses our RTOS INTEGRITY as the root kernel and has run windows and linux as memory protected partitions within it 😉.

No matter what, though, there are still going to be hardware resources which are shared. This is why AMD/Intel are looking into hardware solutions to allow this to be possible.

 

[Icopoli]

WinFS will support multi O/S on the same partition, that's about as close as you're going to get.

 

[imported_Technomancer]

AMD is working on the technology. It's called Pacifica. It will only work with later-generation multi-cores.

Intel is working on this too, but I forget what they call it.

 

[aka1nas]

Think Intel's codename for it is Vanderpool

 

[imported_matthewt]

@Devs: Reply button can be hit below without verifying that text was entered into reply

Thanks for the feedback, I've read a lot about some of the physical aspects of upcoming cores and their codenames, however, the real technology behind each one has somewhat eluded me. I'll keep my eyes and ears open about these projects.

@interchange: How much do these cost? Are they built on *mostly* standard hardware, and are there any restrictions on the OS side? Can I use a different linux OS if I use the Integrity kernel and any special libraries?

Isn't WinFS scrapped from the initial release of Longhorn, atleast as of a month or so ago?

Thanks

 

[sonoran]

You may find this to be of interest: VMWare

From their web page "VMware Workstation allows users to run multiple x86-based operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and NetWare, and their applications simultaneously on a single PC in fully networked, portable virtual machines ? no hard drive partitioning or rebooting required".

And Microsoft has this: Microsoft Virtual PC

Both Intel and AMD are working on features to allow such software to work even better.

 

[imported_matthewt]

I've tried both before, in fact, VPC and Server are more of a headache than an asset for me. Also, I would prefer to have it hardware based, so that I can start either operating system independently of the other, as well as not having the client OS dependent upon the status (processing load) of the other one.

 

[Markfw]

If you run multiplae OS'es on dual-core, you just negated the reason for dual-core. Just buy two PC's cheaper....

 

[imported_Technomancer]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
If you run multiplae OS'es on dual-core, you just negated the reason for dual-core. Just buy two PC's cheaper....

It really depends upon the capability of these new OS virtualization technologies in development. If I can start and stop an OS at will while working on the other one and vice versa, transmit information between the two OS's easy, and such, then I can see it being very useful.

 

[HDTVMan]

Originally posted by: matthewt
I've heard a lot about the possiblity of having multiple operating systems running concurrently on dual-core processors (one on each core), my question is, is this feature already available? Or will I have to wait until later revisions are released in AMD's and Intel's product lines that include this feature?

Thanks.

Matthew

Unix is the only OS I know that can do that. They can even run on systems with different speed CPU's that are multi core.

 

[HDTVMan]

Unix is the only OS I know that can do that. They can even run on systems with different speed CPU's that are multi CPU.

My Bad.

 

[interchange]

Originally posted by: matthewt
@interchange: How much do these cost? Are they built on *mostly* standard hardware, and are there any restrictions on the OS side? Can I use a different linux OS if I use the Integrity kernel and any special libraries?
Thanks

I think we've tested it on x86 pc and PowerPC based boards.

However, it's out of scope for consumer use 🙂. It's a commercial product and I don't think you want to pay for a license to use it.

I was just using it as an example to say that it can be done on today's hardware.