Comparison of platform virtualization software: Difference between revisions

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'''Platform virtualization software''', specifically [[emulator]]s and [[hypervisor]]s, are [[application software|software packages]] that emulate the whole physical computer machine, often providing multiple [[virtual machine]]s on one physical platform. The table below compares basic information about [[Hardware virtualization|platform virtualization]] hypervisors.

== General ==

<!-- Please do NOT change the order of the operating systems from their alphabetic order. -->

{{sticky header}}

{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|-

! Name

! Creator

! Host CPU

! Guest CPU

! Host OS

! Guest OS

! License

|-

! [[86Box]]

| Miran Grča

| x86, x86-64, ARMv7, AArch64

| x86 (Intel 8086 to Pentium II and compatible)

| [[Windows]], [[Linux]], [[macOS]]

| [[Windows]], [[Linux]], [[DOS]], [[Berkeley Software Distribution|BSD]], [[OS/2]], [[Haiku (operating system)|Haiku]]

| {{open source|[[GPL version 3]]}}

Line 106 ⟶ 120:

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

! [[Hyper-V]] (2012+)

| [[Microsoft]]

| x86-64 with Intel VT-x or AMD-V<!--RemoteFX requires SLAT which is independent of the previous. -->, ARMv8<ref>{{cite web |url=https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2020/02/05/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-19559/ |title=Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19559|website=blogs.windows.com |access-date=23 February 2020}}</ref>

Line 113 ⟶ 127:

| Supported drivers for [[Windows NT]], FreeBSD, Linux ([[SUSE Linux|SUSE]] 10, [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux|RHEL]] 6, [[CentOS]] 6)

| {{Proprietary}}. Component of various Windows editions.

|-

! iCore Virtual Accounts

| [[ICore Networks|iCore Software]]

| x86

| x86

| Windows XP

| Windows XP

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

! [[Integrity (operating system)|INTEGRITY]]

Line 239 ⟶ 245:

| Same as host

| No host OS, Linux or Windows as dev. hosts

| PikeOS native, Linux, [[ELinOS]], [[Windows]], POSIX, AUTOSAR, Android, [[RTEMS]], [[OSEK]], [[ARINC 653]] APEX, [[ITRON]]

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

Line 270 ⟶ 276:

| x86, x86-64, IA-64, PowerPC, SPARC 32/64, ARM, S/390, MIPS

| x86, x86-64, Alpha, ARM, CRIS, LM32, [[M68k]], MicroBlaze, MIPS, OpenRisc32, PowerPC, S/390, SH4, SPARC 32/64, Unicore32, Xtensa

| Windows ("experimental"<ref name="qemu-windows-host" />), Linux, macOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BeOS

| Changes regularly<ref name="QEMU" />

| {{open source|[[GNU General Public License|GPL]]/[[LGPL]]}}

Line 304 ⟶ 310:

| No host OS

| Windows, Linux, Windows Embedded, QNX, RTOS-32, VxWorks, OS-9, T-Kernel

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

! ScaleMP vSMP Foundation

| ScaleMP

| x86, x86-64

| Same as host

| No host OS

| Linux

| {{Proprietary}}

|-

Line 452 ⟶ 450:

! VMM

| [[OpenBSD]]

| x86-64

| x86, x86-64

| same as host

| OpenBSD

| OpenBSD and Linux guests

Line 572 ⟶ 570:

== Features ==

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

{{sticky header}}

{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

Line 662:

| Safety and security critical [[embedded system]]s.

| Up to near native{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

| {{Yes}}

|-

! ScaleMP vSMP Foundation

| {{Yes}}, up to 8,192 CPUs and 64 TB per VM{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}}

| {{Yes}}

| {{Yes}}

| [[x86 virtualization|Virtualization]]

| Server consolidation, Cloud computing

| ?

| {{Yes}}

|-

Line 878 ⟶ 869:

| Virtualized server isolation, server/desktop consolidation, software development, cloud computing, other purposes. Xen powers most public cloud services and many hosting services, such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace Hosting and Linode.

| Up to native<ref name="unf.edu" />

| {{yes}}

|-

!XCP-ng

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| [[Paravirtualization]] and porting or hardware virtualization

| Virtualized server isolation, server/desktop consolidation, software development, cloud computing, desktop virtualization, public cloud services, hostings services and other purposes.

| Up to native{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

| {{yes}}

|-

Line 941 ⟶ 923:

== Image type compatibility ==

{{sort-under}}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|-

! Name

Line 948 ⟶ 931:

! [[ISO image|ISO]]

! [[Directory (computing)|folders]] on host

! {{verth|va=middle|physical disk / <br/>device}}

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>(whole disk)}}<!-- [[IMG (file format)#IMG raw disk image format|IMG]] -->

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>([[Disk partitioning|partition]])}}

<!-- alphabetical order for the image formats: -->

<!-- FIXME: link should go to the product that introduced the file format -->

! {{verth|va=middle|hdd <br/>([[Parallels Workstation|Parallels]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow|QCOW]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow#qcow2|QCOW2]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|QED <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VDI (file format)|VDI]] <br/>([[VirtualBox]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VHD (file format)|VHD]] <br/>([[Connectix Virtual PC]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|VHDX <br/>([[Hyper-V]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VMDK]] <br/>([[VMware Workstation|VMware]])}}

<!-- 1. floppy _ 2. ISO _ 3. folder _ 4. physical disk _ 5. raw img disk _ 6. raw img partition _ 7. HDD _ 8. QCOW _ 9. QCOW2 _ 10. QED _ 11. VDI _ 12. VHD _ 13. VHDX _ 14. VMDK -->

<!-- TEMPLATE

Line 989 ⟶ 972:

| {{no}} <!-- raw img partition -->

| {{no}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{no}}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{no}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{no}} <!-- QED -->

Line 997 ⟶ 980:

| {{no}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! [[Bochs]]<ref>{{cite web |url=httphttps://bochs.sourceforge.net/doc/docbook/user/harddisk-modes.html |title=8.19. Disk Image Modes |publisher=Bochs.sourceforge.net |access-date=2013-10-08}}</ref>

| {{yes}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{yes}}<!-- ISO -->

Line 1,086 ⟶ 1,069:

| {{no}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{no}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{partial|{{nowrap|DOSBox-X}} fork}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{no}} <!-- QED -->

| {{no}} <!-- VDI -->

Line 1,204 ⟶ 1,187:

| {{yes}} <!-- VHDX -->

| {{no}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! iCore Virtual Accounts

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- ISO -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- folder -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- physical disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img disk -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- raw img partition -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QED -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VDI -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! [[HP Integrity Virtual Machines|Integrity Virtual Machines]]

Line 1,494 ⟶ 1,461:

|-

! [[QuickTransit]]

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- ISO -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- folder -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- physical disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img disk -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- raw img partition -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- HDD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- QED -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VDI -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHD -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}} <!-- VMDK -->

|-

! ScaleMP vSMP Foundation

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- ISO -->

Line 1,907 ⟶ 1,858:

| {{yes}}<ref name=blktap2 /> <!-- VHD -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VMDK -->

|-

!XCP-ng

| {{dunno}}<!-- floppy -->

| {{yes}}<!-- ISO -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- folder -->

| {{yes}}<!-- physical disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img disk -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- raw img partition -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- HDD -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- QCOW -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- QCOW2 -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- QED -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VDI -->

| {{yes}}<!-- VHD -->

| {{no}}<!-- VHDX -->

| {{dunno}}<!-- VMDK -->

|-

Line 1,993 ⟶ 1,928:

! [[ISO image|ISO]]

! [[Directory (computing)|folders]] on host

! {{verth|va=middle|physical disk / <br/>device}}

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>(whole disk)}}

! {{verth|va=middle|raw / flat <br/>([[Disk partitioning|partition]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|hdd <br/>([[Parallels Workstation|Parallels]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow|QCOW]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[qcow#qcow2|QCOW2]] <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|QED <br/>([[QEMU]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VDI (file format)|VDI]] <br/>([[VirtualBox]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VHD (file format)|VHD]] <br/>([[Connectix Virtual PC]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|VHDX <br/>([[Hyper-V]])}}

! {{verth|va=middle|[[VMDK]] <br/>([[VMware Workstation|VMware]])}}

|}

== Other features ==

{{sort-under}}

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

{| class="wikitable sortable sort-under" style="font-size: smaller; text-align: center; width: auto; table-layout: fixed;"

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

Line 2,045 ⟶ 1,981:

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|N/A}}

| <!-- PCI passthrough -->

|-

Line 2,053 ⟶ 1,989:

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{n/a|Not needed}}

| {{yes}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E36784_01/html/E36803/zonelimit.html|title=beadm in Non-Global Zones – Creating and Administering Oracle Solaris 11.2 Boot Environments|date=11 November 2014|work=oracle.com}}</ref>

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

| {{yes}}

| {{n/a|Not needed}}

| {{n/a|Not needed}}

|-

! [[DosBox]]

Line 2,184 ⟶ 2,120:

| {{no}}

| {{no}}

| {{dunno}}

| ?

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

Line 2,236 ⟶ 2,172:

|

| {{no}}

| {{dunno}}

| ?

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

Line 2,379 ⟶ 2,315:

| {{yes}}

| Supported with [[VMGL]]<ref name="VMGL"/>

| ?{{dunno}} <!-- probably one of [1, line, branched]; delete this comment after adding information -->

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

Line 2,385 ⟶ 2,321:

| <!-- shared clipboard -->

| <!-- PCI passthrough -->{{yes}}

|-

!XCP-ng

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

|

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

|

|

|-

! [[XenServer]]

Line 2,414 ⟶ 2,337:

! [[z/VM]]

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{yes}} (zURM/HMC)

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|

|

| {{yes}} (2011)

| <!-- shared folders -->

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|-

! z [[LPAR]]s

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{yes}} (HMC)

| {{yes}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|

|

| {{yes}} (2007)

| <!-- shared folders -->

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

| {{N/A|Not applicable}}

|-

|- class="sortbottom"

! Name

Line 2,589 ⟶ 2,511:

| 4 IDE; 256 SCSI

| 64 TB

|-

! Xen<br>XCP-ng<br>Xen Server<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Project_Release_Features#Limits|title=Xen Project Release Features – Xen|website=wiki.xen.org|language=en|access-date=2018-08-14}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://wiki.xenproject.org/wiki/Xen_Project_4.19_Feature_List|title=Xen Project 4.19 Feature List - Xen|website=Wiki.xenproject.org|language=en|date=2024-07-30|access-date=2024-08-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/Xen-4.19-Released|title=Xen 4.19 Released With New 9pfs Backend, Scales Up To 16,383 CPUs - Phoronix|website=[[Phoronix_Test_Suite#Phoronix_website|www.phoronix.com]]|language=en|date=2024-07-31|access-date=2024-08-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/xen-project-announces-performance-and-security-advancements-with-release-of-4.19|title=Xen Project Announces Performance and Security Advancements with Release of 4.19|website=[[Linux Foundation|www.linuxfoundation.org]]|language=en|date=2024-07-31|access-date=2024-08-04}}</ref>

| 16383 CPUs_x86<br>8 CPUs_ARM32<br>128 CPUs_ARM64

| 16 TB_x86<br>16 GB_ARM32<br>5 TB_ARM64

| No limit

| No limit

| 512&nbsp;PV_x86&nbsp;/&nbsp;128&nbsp;HVM_x86<br>8_ARM32<br>128_ARM64

| >1&nbsp;TB&nbsp;PV_x86&nbsp;/&nbsp;1&nbsp;TB&nbsp;HVM_x86<br>16 GB_ARM32<br>1 TB_ARM64

| ?

| ?

|-

! Name

Line 2,636 ⟶ 2,548:

<ref name="arstechnica">{{cite web |last = Protalinski |first = Emil |url = https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2009/08/microsoft-hyper-v-server-2008-r2-arrives-for-free |title = Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 arrives for free |publisher = Ars Technica |date = 2009-09-01 |access-date = 2013-10-08 }}</ref>

<ref name="bochs1">{{cite web |url = httphttps://bochs.sourceforge.net/doc/docbook/user/supported-platforms.html |title = 1.8. Supported Platforms |website = Bochs.sourceforge.net |access-date = 2015-02-22 }}</ref>

<ref name="bochs2">{{cite web |url = httphttps://bochs.sourceforge.net/doc/docbook/user/compiling.html |title = 3.4. Compiling Bochs |website = Bochs.sourceforge.net |access-date = 2015-02-22 }}</ref>

<ref name="bhyve1">{{cite web |url = https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/Windows |title = Bhyve supports Windows |access-date = 2015-12-22}}</ref>

Line 2,714 ⟶ 2,626:

<ref name="rhel.kvm.arm">{{cite web |url = https://access.redhat.com/articles/2690601&context=etd |title = Development Preview of KVM Virtualization on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server for ARM |website = redhat.com |access-date = 2017-05-15 }}</ref>

<ref name="qemu-windows-host">{{ cite web | url = https://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/ | title = QEMU Binaries for Windows (64 bit) | website = qemu.weilnetz.de | access-date = 2025-08-18 }}</ref>

|colwidth = 30em

}}