[Info-vax] VMS port to x86

[John Wallace]

On Mar 27, 4:42 pm, koeh... at eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob
Koehler) wrote:
> In article <4f70d44f$0$1746$c3e8da3$92d0a... at news.astraweb.com>, JF Mezei <jfmezei.spam... at vaxination.ca> writes:
>
>
>
> > Anyone know what VMware really is ? It wouldn't susprise me if it had
> > linux under the hood.
>
>    I think VMware is a product line.  I know we're using it to host
>    WXP on top of Mac OS.  Since they're both Intel user mode code on
>    WXP simply runs as user mode code on the CPU.  Adds I hear for VMware
>    imply other, quite different products.
>
>    For us, VMware has to intercept WXP access to the underlying hardware,
>    and simulate interrupts from hardware, but I don't suspect anyone of
>    tossing a whole Linux kernel in there just for that.

" I think VMware is a product line."

The VMware brand covers multiple different products. Some of them run
on top of a very visible OS (often but not always Windows).

Some so-called bare metal ones run on top of a "not really bare metal"
OS, not unlike the discussion we're having here. This "not really bare
metal" OS provides facilities such as hardware independence for the
next layer up, remote management, resource allocation, scheduling, and
many of the other things that would normally be regarded as the
territory of a real OS.

The main difference between this and a real OS is that a real OS
usually offers a documented set of generic APIs so that customers can
write their own applications. The API(s) offered by VMware's ESX
family are, as far as I know, intended primarily to support the
management of the ESX product and not (for example) re-implementing
DECburger or All-in-1 or a stock exchange trading system.