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Table Of Contents
CPU Virtualization Basics 3
CPU virtualization emphasizes performance and runs directly on the processor whenever possible. The
underlying physical resources are used whenever possible and the virtualization layer runs instructions
only as needed to make virtual machines operate as if they were running directly on a physical machine.
CPU virtualization is not the same thing as emulation. ESXi does not use emulation to run virtual CPUs.
With emulation, all operations are run in software by an emulator. A software emulator allows programs to
run on a computer system other than the one for which they were originally written. The emulator does
this by emulating, or reproducing, the original computer’s behavior by accepting the same data or inputs
and achieving the same results. Emulation provides portability and runs software designed for one
platform across several platforms.
When CPU resources are overcommitted, the ESXi host time-slices the physical processors across all
virtual machines so each virtual machine runs as if it has its specified number of virtual processors. When
an ESXi host runs multiple virtual machines, it allocates to each virtual machine a share of the physical
resources. With the default resource allocation settings, all virtual machines associated with the same
host receive an equal share of CPU per virtual CPU. This means that a single-processor virtual machines
is assigned only half of the resources of a dual-processor virtual machine.
This chapter includes the following topics:
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Software-Based CPU Virtualization
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Hardware-Assisted CPU Virtualization
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Virtualization and Processor-Specific Behavior
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Performance Implications of CPU Virtualization
Software-Based CPU Virtualization
With software-based CPU virtualization, the guest application code runs directly on the processor, while
the guest privileged code is translated and the translated code runs on the processor.
The translated code is slightly larger and usually runs more slowly than the native version. As a result,
guest applications, which have a small privileged code component, run with speeds very close to native.
Applications with a significant privileged code component, such as system calls, traps, or page table
updates can run slower in the virtualized environment.
VMware, Inc.
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