hypervisorassisted

Hypervisor-assisted is a term that refers to a mode of operation for virtual machines where the host system's hardware, specifically the CPU and memory management unit, provides direct support for virtualization. This contrasts with software-assisted virtualization, which relies entirely on the operating system and hypervisor to emulate hardware features.

In hypervisor-assisted virtualization, the CPU has specific instructions and architectural features designed to facilitate the execution of guest operating systems. For example, Intel VT-x and AMD-V are processor extensions that enable hardware-assisted virtualization. These features allow the hypervisor to trap privileged instructions from the guest OS in hardware, rather than needing to emulate them in software. This significantly reduces the overhead associated with virtualization, leading to improved performance for virtual machines.

The benefits of hypervisor-assisted virtualization include higher guest operating system performance, reduced latency, and better overall efficiency. It is the dominant method for modern server and desktop virtualization solutions. Without this hardware support, the performance penalty for running virtual machines would be substantially greater, making many modern virtualization use cases impractical. The hypervisor works in conjunction with the hardware to manage the resources allocated to each virtual machine, ensuring isolation and preventing interference between them. This hardware enablement is crucial for achieving near-native performance in virtualized environments.