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AMD virtualization (AMD-V) is a virtualization technology developed by Advanced Micro Devices.
AMD-V technology takes some of the tasks that virtual machine managers perform through software emulation and simplifies those tasks through enhancements in the processor’s instruction set.
Techopedia Explains AMD Virtualization
AMD virtualization technology uses hardware to do the job that virtual machine managers do via software by incorporating virtualization extensions in a processor’s instruction set.
Virtualization allows guest programs to run on a simulated system that emulates the hardware itself, which is done with the help of a software manager. Because of this, the system does not have proper access to the processor and every operation has to go through software, effectively limiting the power of the system to be emulated. With hardware virtualization, the emulated system can be given more processing power, allowing more virtual machines to run at the same time.
The first generation of virtualization extensions for the x86 architecture was developed under the code name Pacifica and announced in 2004 as the AMD Secure Virtual Machine (SVM).
The first processors that supported AMD-V technology were the Athlon 64, X2 and FX processors, which were released in 2006.
