Intel to make PCs more secure with Virtualization Technology

Bryant took IBM/Lenovo demonstration, shown in Paul Ottelinis keynote, as an example to show what can be achieved with Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT), formerly known as Vanderpool. IBM’s code, he stressed, made up only 2 megabytes. This included the security features that took the Windows XP running on another partition of the system off the net, once it started spreading worms.

To do this, the device driver on the XP partition must be “virtual” – it thinks it talks to the NIC, while in fact it´s all software it sees. The only one really accessing the NIC is the security software in the “IT Services partition”. This is most of the magic Pat Gelsinger referred to when he said he was now able to stuff Intel’s CIO into silicon.