VMbytes

In April 2005 VMware delivered a presentation at Perforce User Conference to describe how software development was working and which problems company had at that time. The presentation, suddenly emerged from the Net, is now unveiling a lot of interesting informations about virtualization leader software lifecycle model.

In particular:

• every major release (e.g.: Workstation 6.0) was set for delivery every 18 months
• every minor release (e.g.: ESX Server 3.1) was set for delivery every 9 months
• every cumulative bugfixes release (e.g.: VirtualCenter 2.0.1) was set for delivery every 3 months

But the most interesting information is that VMware has 40% of code shared among major products, which at that time were: ESX Server, Virtual Center, GSX Server (now Server), Workstation and ACE.

The presentation also shows how VMware branching model works:

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap helps recognize how VMware is not respecting such delivery schedule anymore for all kind of releases:

• Workstation 5.0.0 (04/2005) –> 6.0.0 (04/2007)
• ESX Server 3.0.0 (06/2006) –> 3.1.0 (expected 3/2007)
• ESX Server 3.0.0 (06/2006) –> 3.0.1 (10/2006) –> 3.0.2 (expected 01/2007)

Despite that VMware may stick with 18 months timeframe for enterprise product, releasing ESX Server 4.0 next summer, as expected to counter-attack release of Microsoft Windows Server Virtualization (codename Viridian):

• ESX Server 2.0.0 (12/2004) –> 3.0.0 (06/2006) –> 4.0.0 (06/2008)

Read the whole presentation at source.

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Detection of a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) is still a hot topic since appearance of Blue Pill prototype.

Despite many authoritative opinions against its feasibility, security and virtualization communities are still debating around the topic.

Joining their efforts, VMware, XenSource and universities of Stanford and Carnegie Mellon produced a paper to better clarify why achieving VMM invisibility is impossible.

Compatibility Is Not Transparency: VMM Detection Myths and Realities was presented in May 2007 at HotOS 11, a Usenix workshop about hot topics in operating systems:

Recent work on applications ranging from realistic honeypots to stealthier rootkits has speculated about building transparent VMMs ? VMMs that are indistinguishable from native hardware, even to a dedicated adversary. We survey anomalies between real and virtual hardware and consider methods for detecting such anomalies, as well as possible countermeasures. We conclude that building a transparent VMM is fundamentally infeasible, as well as impractical from a performance and engineering standpoint.

Read the whole paper at source.

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Voltaire lost faith going into its IPO Thursday, cutting the price and the number of shares on offer. Apparently the VC shares that were going to be sold were pulled and the price went from the $12-$14 of two weeks ago to nine bucks, the low end of the $9-$11 range it settled on Wednesday. The company made $46 million but the stock immediately sank over 7%. In the first quarter Voltaire, most of whose sales come from Sun, HP and IBM, lost $4.2 million on sales of $8.6 million. See VOLT.

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AMD says it’s developing DDR3-based Socket G3 Memory Extender (G3MX) technology planned for the next-generation Opteron platform in 2009 that will extend its total memory footprint and increase the performance of enterprise-class servers. How much it didn’t venture to say but it’s thinking virtualization and pervasive multi-cores. The widgetry is being developed with IC houses IDT and Inphi, which are planning to sell G3MX components and should allow the use of bigger memory capacities with standard DIMMs.

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Limping from the price wars, AMD actually did better than many expected after Intel reported on Tuesday. Yeah, sure, it lost a nasty $600 million, or $1.09 a share, but that includes 24 cents attributable to its $5.6 billion acquisition of ATI, leaving 85 cents, better than the Street expected. AMD has been losing money for the last nine months. A year ago this time it made $88.9 million. Meanwhile, revenues came to $1.378 billion, significantly better than the $1.26 billion folks thought it would do.

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PALO ALTO, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27, 2007 — VMware, Inc. today announced that Cisco Systems will acquire an equity stake in the company. Cisco will purchase $150 million of VMware Class A common shares currently held by EMC Corporation, VMware’s parent company, subject to customary regulatory and other closing conditions including Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) review. Upon closing of the investment, Cisco will own approximately 1.6 percent of VMware’s total outstanding common stock (less than one percent of the combined voting power of VMware’s outstanding common stock). VMware has agreed to consider the appointment of a Cisco executive to VMware’s board of directors at a…

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Besides Opsware, HP Monday bought Neoware, ironically the lately struggling heir to IBM’s thin client business, for $326.7 million, a 6.6% premium that becomes $212.6 million after the $114.1 million that Neoware has socked away under its mattress is factored in. HP made it clear as a bell that it wanted Neoware’s NeoLinux skills, and after that its virtualization and customization. Neoware also gives it a wider regional footprint and a broader hardware base, but in the last respect it’s unclear what will be left after they clear out the weeds. Neoware is more valued for its software.

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HP is buying Opsware Inc, Netscape wunderkind Marc Andreessen’s second start-up, for $1.45 billion cash, a frothy 39% premium over its stock price. Figuring in Opware’s debt and cash on hand, the deal is valued at $1.6 billion. Andreessen will get $138 million out of it, more than the roughly $100 million that the unprofitable Opsware - down $10.6 million in losses in the April quarter - currently has been doing a year in revenues. HP is paying $14.25 a share for stock that has seen the dark side of a dollar.

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Intel has released its first mobile dual-core Core 2 Extreme chip for hardcore gamers, artists and the media set, celebrating the first anniversary of the Core microarchitecture. Both cores run at 2.6GHz and overclock protection has been removed so it can be ‘hotrodded.’ The company figures it’ll perform 28% better than its predecessor. Intel has also released a 3GHz desktop quad with a 1,333MHz bus for the games market. The mobile Extreme X7800 with 4MB of cache costs $851 and the desktop quad with 8MB of L2 cache is $999. There are also 2.33GHz and 2.66GHz versions of the quad priced at $163-$530.

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‘With customers asking for ways to measure and compare performance on different server platforms, VMware worked closely with partners to design and implement VMmark,’ said Raghu Raghuram, vice president of product and solution marketing for VMware. ‘We created this open benchmark to enable customers to make the best decisions about running mission-critical applications on virtual infrastructures.’

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