The company said xVM VirtualBox 2.1 has key enhancements including accelerated 3D graphics, improved network performance, built-in iSCSI support for storage systems, and support for Mac OS X on Intel Virtualisation Technology, VMware’s virtual machine disk format and Microsoft’s virtual hard disk format, an Intel Core i7 processor (codenamed Nehalem), and 64-bit guest OS on 32-bit host platforms.
It said the xVM VirtualBox open source hypervisor supports operating systems including Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Solaris, and OpenSolaris, and enables users to create virtual machines where they can install their OS of choice, enabling developers to build, test, and run cross-platform, multi-tier applications on a single laptop or desktop computer. The 30MB software has surpassed 8 million downloads worldwide.
In September Sun expanded its desktop virtualisation partnership with VMware to add VMware Virtual Desktop Manager and VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure to its desktop virtualization portfolio.
Jim McHugh, vice president of marketing at Sun’s data centre software division, said: With each new update, xVM VirtualBox software is evolving into a must-have tool for developers looking for new ways to develop software. The excitement in the developer community has also taken xVM VirtualBox software into IT departments, where we’ve seen desktop virtualisation software being used to solve issues of PC management, software distribution, and desktop security.
The software is available free of charge from VirtualBox.org open source community.