VMware Fusion

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VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion running Windows Vista on Mac OS X
Developer:	VMware, Inc.
Latest release:	1.0b3 (build 43733) / April 5, 2007
OS:	Mac OS X
Platform:	Apple-Intel architecture
Use:	Virtual machine
License:	Proprietary
Website:	Fusion Beta Program

Fusion is a virtual machine software product by VMware, Inc. for Macintosh computers with Intel processors. Fusion allows Intel-based Macs to run x86 "guest" operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris as virtual machines simultaneously with Mac OS X as the "host" operating system using a combination of virtualization, emulation and dynamic recompilation.

1 Overview
2 Key features
3 Known beta issues
4 See also
- 4.1 General articles
- 4.2 Articles on specific related products
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Overview

Fusion is currently in a beta stage of development. The first public beta was released on December 21, 2006, the second on March 1, 2007 and the third on April 5, 2007. Fusion is VMware's first entry into the emerging Macintosh virtualization market, which has been made possible by the Apple Intel transition. Fusion utilizes Intel Vanderpool virtualization technology present in the Intel Core microarchitecture platform. Much of the underlying technology in Fusion is borrowed from other VMware products, such as VMware Workstation. Unlike most of VMware's software products, which are targeted towards professional applications, Fusion is consumer oriented, and thus is often compared to Parallels Desktop for Mac, a similar consumer virtualization product.

[edit] Key features

Hardware accelerated 3D graphics, supporting DirectX 8.1 through dynamic recompilation to OpenGL instructions
Support for Windows XP Boot Camp partitions
Snapshot capability for saving and restoring machine states
Support for wired and wireless networks, in NAT or bridged mode
Support for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Ability to run 32- and 64-bit x86 operating systems
Ability to assign multiple CPUs to your virtual machine to gain additional performance for CPU-intensive workloads
Access physical devices from the virtual machine: read and burn CDs and DVDs
Use USB 2.0 devices such as video cameras, iPods, printers, and disks at full speed
Drag and drop files and folders between OS X and virtual machines
Virtual machines created with VMware Fusion can be freely used with any other VMware products, and vice-versa

[edit] Known beta issues

There are some known issues in the Fusion beta which are documented in the release notes.^[1] Of note:

Resizing the virtual machine's window while 3D games are running can cause a crash
Devices cannot be removed from the Settings window
When installing on Leopard, entering a serial number from the installer can cause a Directory Services crash
Solaris 10 guests must be updated to Solaris 10 Update 3 to run on an Intel Core platform
Virtual machine timing and host timing differ
Using iSight in a virtual machine without the Boot Camp drivers causes the virtual machine to fail. Also using iSight in Mac OS X versions lower than 10.4.8 after using it in a virtual machine might require shutting down and restarting the host machine
Guests with extremely high display resolutions (2360 x 1770) may display as a solid white screen