Parallels Workstation Extreme is the first workstation virtualization product that lets users virtualize graphics-intensive software programs such as

geophysical Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and properties of Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. Geophysicists conduct investigations acros ...

simulation,

financial analysis Financial analysis (also known as financial statement analysis, accounting analysis, or analysis of finance) refers to an assessment of the viability, stability, and profitability of a business, sub-business, project or investment. It is per ...

, and

digital content creation Content creation or content creative is the act of producing and sharing information or media content for specific audiences, particularly in digital contexts. According to '' Dictionary.com'', content refers to "something that is to be expresse ...

programs commonly used by engineers and digital animators in virtual machines on

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

hosts. To let users virtualize these resource-intensive programs, Parallels partnered with Intel and Nvidia and incorporated their technologies into Parallels Workstation Extreme.

Overview

Like other virtualization software, Parallels Workstation Extreme uses a

hypervisor A hypervisor, also known as a virtual machine monitor (VMM) or virtualizer, is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called ...

to grant its virtual machines’ direct access to the host computer's hardware. However, instead of handling the processes within the virtual machine as other virtualization products do to render 3D graphics, Parallels Workstation Extreme uses Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O to direct the multimedia directly back to the host's graphics cards while Nvidia's SLI Multi-OS allows the host machine and the virtual machine to each have their dedicated GPU. Each graphic application running in a virtual machine requires its own dedicated Nvidia Quadro FX 3800, 4800, or 5800 graphics card, which are the only graphics cards currently supported by the product. To provide the hardware environment to support this mix of virtualization and graphics technologies,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...

partnered with Parallels and

Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

to develop the HP Z800, a high-end PC that include Nvidia's

Quadro Quadro was Nvidia's brand for graphics cards intended for use in workstations running professional computer-aided design (CAD), computer-generated imagery (CGI), digital content creation (DCC) applications, scientific calculations and machine l ...

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

s and Intel's

VT-d x86 virtualization is the use of hardware-assisted virtualization capabilities on an x86/x86-64 CPU. In the late 1990s x86 virtualization was achieved by complex software techniques, necessary to compensate for the processor's lack of hardware-a ...

and

Xeon Xeon (; ) is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted at the non-consumer workstation, server, and embedded markets. It was introduced in June 1998. Xeon processors are based on the same archite ...

processor.

Features

Parallels Workstation Extreme includes support for up to 16 CPU cores, 64 GB of

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for guest OSs, 16 virtual network adapters per virtual machine and

virtual drive Virtual disk and virtual drive are software components that emulate an actual disk storage device. Virtual disks and virtual drives are common components of virtual machines in hardware virtualization, but they are also widely used for various pu ...

sizes up to 2 TB. Users can use multiple monitors, display a different guest operating system in each screen and also move the mouse back and forth between monitors and OSs. Parallels Workstation Extreme load balances CPU resources as users move between the different OSs on the workstation. The product also supports

CLI CLI may refer to: Computing * Call Level Interface, an SQL database management API * Command-line interface, of a computer program * Command-line interpreter or command language interpreter; see List of command-line interpreters * CLI (x86 instruc ...

, PXEboot and USB 2.0 devices. Users can utilize virtual machine templates, multiple

snapshot Snapshot, snapshots or snap shot may refer to: * Snapshot (photography), a photograph taken without preparation Computing * Snapshot (computer storage), the state of a system at a particular point in time * Snapshot (file format) or SNP, a file ...

capabilities and

software development kit A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific t ...

s. Also included is Parallels Compressor, designed to compress the size of a virtual hard disk, and Parallels Image Tool, designed to increase or decrease the size of a virtual hard disk.

System requirements

Host requirements include: * 64-bit Windows Vista, 64-bit Windows XP SP3 or 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 host operating system * 1 or 2 Intel

Processors 5500 series * 8 GB RAM * 10 GB disk space per virtual machine * Supported

NVIDIA Quadro Quadro was Nvidia's brand for graphics cards intended for use in workstations running professional computer-aided design (CAD), computer-generated imagery (CGI), digital content creation (DCC) applications, scientific calculations and machine l ...

FX graphics cards Supported guest operating systems include 64-bit Windows Vista, 64-bit Windows XP SP3,

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is a commercial Linux distribution developed by Red Hat. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86-64, Power ISA, ARM64, and IBM Z and a desktop version for x86-64. Fedora Linux and ...

4.7 and 5.3 and

Fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

10.

References

External links

Official webpage
{{Virtualization software Virtualization software Proprietary cross-platform software

Overview

Features

System requirements

See also

References

External links