Re:Virtualisation features? (Score 1)

I'm sure they're talking specifically about the virtualization features in the Vanderpool architecture, but it's worth noting that implementing VMs even with the current Intel x86 architecture implementations would be a lot easier if only the priviliged instructions behaved "properly" when executed in non-priviliged mode.

One of the biggest problems that a VM implementation under x86 has to solve is dealing with the fact that some priviliged instructions, critical to the proper operation of OSes, silently execute with no visible side-effects when executed in non-priviliged mode. Given that a VM essentially executes the guest OS as a non-priviliged "user application", it is critical that these instructions be trappable, but they're not, so various code analysis and single-stepping (ptrace) approaches are required.