Intel Update

We discuss the existing and new hardware virtualization features. First, we review the existing hardware features that are not used by Xen today, showing examples for use cases. 1) For example, The "descriptor-table exiting" should be useful for the guest kernels or security agent to enhance security features. 2) The VMX-preemption timer allows the hypervisor to preempt guest VM execution after a specified amount of time, which is useful to implement fair scheduling. The hardware can save the timer value on each successive VMexit, after setting the initial VM quantum. 3) VMFUNC is an operation provided by the processor that can be invoked from VMX non-root operation without a VM exit. Today, EPTP switching is available, and we discuss how we can use the feature. Second, we talk about new hardware features, especially for interrupt optimizations.

Jun Nakajima, Principal Engineer, Intel

Jun Nakajima is a Principal Engineer leading open source virtualization projects, such as Xen and KVM at the Intel Open Source Technology Center. He is recognized as one of the key contributors to Xen, and he presented a number of times at technical conferences, including Xen Summit, OLS, KVM Forum, and USENIX. He has over 20 years of experience with operating system internals and an extensive background in processor architectures. Prior to joining Intel, he worked on various projects in the industry such as AT&T/USL Unix System V Releases (SVR) like the SVR4.2, and Chorus microkernel based fault-tolerant distributed SVR4.