It has been revealed in a recent leaked build, that the operating system Microsoft currently code names Windows 8, contains Hyper-V 3.0 technology and a new virtual hard drive format called VHDX.
It has been assumed by several sites that the features have been a part of Windows 8 for quite some time, however due to the lack of 64-bit builds and more focus being placed on mainstream consumer features, they were yet to be picked up by enthusiasts.
According to Robert McLaws at Windows Now, the new features bring a larger scale version of virtualisation than what we have seen before in a Windows operating system. The new virtual hard drive format allows a total size of up to 16TB of data, which is a significant improvement from the VHD format, and Microsoft has also included support in Hyper-V for more than four computing cores, ultimately benefiting those with a lot of computing power. Overall, Mr McLaws has uncovered the following new features in this build of Windows 8:
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Storage
- Virtual Fibre Channel Adapter
- Storage Resource Pools
- New .VHDX virtual hard drive format (Up to 16TB + power failure resiliency)
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Memory/Processor Enhancements
- Support for more than 4 cores! (My machine has 12 cores)
- NUMA - Memory per Node, Cores per Node, Nodes per Processor Socket
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Networking Enhancements
- Hardware Acceleration (Virtual Machine Queue & IPsec Offload)
- Bandwidth Management
- DHCP Guard
- Router Guard
- Monitor Port
- Virtual Switch Extensions
- Network Resource Pools
Given that Microsoft appears to be pushing for more native applications of virtualisation on its operating systems, it will be interesting to see how this impacts the virtual desktop software market. The potential of the new features could well benefit developers and the tech-savvy alike, making it easier for people to have access to all the features that some come to expect from virtualisation software.
Image Source: windows-now.com
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