Dual OS'es on Dual Core without reboot?

[onix]

This post got me thinking (http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=22024) if there would be a way to run OS X and XP simultaneously without a reboot on a dual core system. The OS'es would run separately and without emulation.

[sidd]

Probably there wouldn't be a way to do this, because

(1) Even though it is a dual core processor - there are several parts of the processor which are shared (like cache etc)

(2) Operating systems need complete control over the system/interrupts etc - so having two CPUs only would not help as there will be only one motherboard and only one instance of all the devices.

[own6volvos]

Research Intel Virtualization

[sidd]

Research Intel Virtualization

Intel Virtualization is somewhat different from the original intention of this thread. Intel Virtualization is on the lines of running multiple operating systems on virtual machines somewhat close to VMWare. There will be *one* operating system which will provide a virtual view of the devices and on top of that you can run as many OS es as you want. But as I understood the original poster said running the OS es natively - as in 'two cores' and hence 'two simultaneous OS', and my response was in regards to that.

[christopher_wolf]

That is indeed what the Virtualization engine does; think of it as an emulator.

VMware has some pretty good software as well.

In terms of running OSes side-by-side on the same chip and sharing the cores is either extremely difficult or next to impossible without some hefty overhauls and/or a MiniOS, perhaps in an EC-like setup, that can synchronize the processes across the OSes for better throughput onto the chip. Even then, you get mutiple bottlenecks and effectively halve what you can do on either OS.