vBlades: Optimized Paravirtualization for the Itanium Processor Family

Virtualization of an "uncooperative" architecture often has severe performance consequences. Paravirtualization has recently been suggested as a solution to performance issues, but it introduces unacceptable supportability problems. The HP Labs vBlades project has identified a novel hybrid approach—which we call optimized paravirtualization. We examine methods for both virtualizing and paravirtualizing the Itanium processor, and then demonstrate optimized paravirtualization to maximize performance while simultaneously minimizing supportability concerns.