AMD has announced the broad availability of its I/O virtualization technology specification. AMD is making x86 processor architecture available through royalty-free licenses that are designed to encourage its widespread adoption by hardware and software developers.

AMD's I/O virtualization technology can be directly built into a computer's I/O bridges and is designed to extend the benefits of CPU-assisted virtualization by addressing the performance bottlenecks and security issues that can be encountered when virtualizing I/O devices in x86-based servers, desktops, and notebook computers.

The CPU virtualization technology delivers CPU efficiencies to traditional software based virtualization approaches. The virtualization technology complements and extends these efficiencies by providing mechanisms to support virtualization software in managing, partitioning, and securing I/O devices, which is anticipated to result in improved performance and less implementation complexity in providing I/O in virtual environments.

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