Management by hardware

The past year has seen the advent of hardware-assisted features within mainstream x86-based microprocessors from Intel and AMD. Even as the those chip vendors have turned to multicore implementations as the primary source for boosting performance, they are adding hardwired features into their processors and associated chip sets.

These features were previously left solely to software or were not addressed at all.

"We are looking hard at what technologies are right to be moved into silicon and placed within our platforms as opposed to technologies that need to stay in software," says Margaret Lewis, director of commercial solutions at AMD. "As a result, we are on the brink of a lot interesting new concepts in performance. It's no longer simple. In many cases, it won't be necessarily be how fast you complete a task, but how satisfied you are with the result."

AMD's Trinity platform is intended to allow processors to handle virtualization, security and management. One of the first commercialized efforts has been technology originally developed under the code name Pacifica, to allow hardware to more easily run multiple operating systems.