Hardware Considerations
The x86 architecture was not designed to support virtualization. More specifically, these processors have 17 CPU instructions that require special privileges and can result in operation system instability when virtualized. VMware invented the “binary translation” technique to enable virtualization for x86 servers. To handle the problematic instructions, the binary translation technique “traps” these instructions as they are generated and converts them into safe instructions that can be virtualized, while allowing all other instructions to be executed without intervention. Binary translation provides broad compatibility, allowing you to use virtualization on practically any x86 server without the need to modify the guest ...
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