HP DL360 Server virtualization technologies for x86-based HP BladeSystem and H - Page 17

Figure A2. In a virtual machine environment such as VMware ESX Server that uses binary translation, the guest OS operates in ring 1 or ring 3. Typical multitasking operating system Application Ring 3 Multitasking OS in a virtual machine environment Guest application Guest application OS kernel/ device drivers Ring 2 Ring 1 Ring 0 Guest OS kernel Guest OS kernel Virtualization layer Processor Processor With processor-assisted virtualization, hypervisor software will be able to run in a more privileged ring layer. This will allow guest operating systems to run in their normal ring 0 layer. In addition, AMD-V and Intel VT-x include new instructions that are specific to hypervisors. The combination of these two factors (higher-privilege ring level and new hardware instructions) may provide a more efficient way for hypervisors to virtualize server hardware. 17