News

VMWare Supports 64-bit in Workstation, Server

• By Scott Bekker
• June 23, 2004

Virtualization software provider VMWare delivered support this week for 64-bit extended systems in two of its products, marking the first delivery in a plan to provide support for the platforms across all its products over the next 16 months.

VMWare's software allows multiple operating systems to run on the same hardware. VMWare manages the resources and makes it appear to each operating system that it is the only OS on the system. Supporting the 64-bit versions of x86-based processors from AMD and Intel means VMWare will be able to virtualize the next generation of memory-intensive applications, according to VMWare.

The step aligns VMWare, an EMC company, with a growing view that over the next two years, 64-bit capable x86 systems will be the standard type of x86 system sold.

The VMWare products with the new experimental support for AMD 64 and the Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel EM64T) are VMWare GSX Server and VMWare Workstation. Operating systems supported by VMWare are the beta version of Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit Extended Systems, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.