What Chips Have Intel Virtualization Technology?

by John Papiewski
Intel's virtualization technology helps manage large server installations.

Intel's virtualization technology helps manage large server installations.

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To help meet the demands of increasingly complex business software, Intel introduced its "VT-x" virtualization technology, letting you run multiple operating systems on a single microprocessor chip. Using VT-x, small companies can, for example, host Linux and Windows on the same PC. Large organizations can save money and become more energy-efficient by consolidating numerous servers into a few physical computers.

Pentium 4

Two chips in the Pentium 4 chip "Prescott" family, the 662 and 672, were the first to receive Intel's virtualization technology in 2005. In addition to virtualization, these versions of the Pentium 4 received numerous enhancements including Hyper-threading, a 64-bit data path and some 64-bit instructions. Running at a clock speed of 3.6 GHz, they had 16KB of level 1 data cache and 2MB of 8-way associative level 2 cache with error correction. Though these chips had a single core, Hyper-threading allowed to process threads to share it, improving the CPU's overall speed


Intel's Xeon processor line began as a high-performance enhancement of Pentium 4 chips for workstations and servers. Xeon chips incorporate generous amounts of cache memory to boost performance. For example the Xeon 7400 has four 32KB caches each for instructions and data, two 3MB level 2 caches and a 12MB level 3 cache. As of the date of publication, Xeon processors have up to 10 cores; the design accommodates multiple CPU chips on the same motherboard. Xeon processors have virtualization technology to improve their usefulness in servers.

Core I3, I5 And I7

The Core i3, i5 and i7 series microprocessors bring VT-x virtualization technology to desktop PCs. They have Hyper-threading, multiple cores and a 64-bit architecture. The i3 is the "budget" model; i5 and i7 models support greater clock speeds and have more cache memory for better performance. The i3, i5 and i7 replace Intel's earlier Core Duo microprocessors.


The Itanium processor line is radically different from Intel's other chips, as it does not support the traditional x86 instruction set used in Microsoft Windows and many other major software products. High-end server computers from Hewlett-Packard use the Itanium to run the proprietary version of Unix called HP-UX. As the Itanium chip has the VT-x virtualization feature, users can maintain many simultaneous, different configurations of HP-UX on the same machine.

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