One of the sessions I plan to visit at LinuxWorld Expo is
"Session 23: Linux and IA64". This got me thinking again,
about IA64 and virtualization of IA32 environments.
>From scanning through the IA64 docs awhile ago, it looks
like Intel does a lot more IA32 virtualizing. Has anyone
read anything interesting on this lately? Seems like
there's a place for FreeMWare in the IA64 space.
For running 32bit user apps written for say a 32bit Linux OS
on a 64bit Linux OS, the interface is likely best handled
by the 64bit Linux OS. But I'm thinking to run 32bit apps
and OS code of a different type, to run code for which there
is no 64bit interface yet, or to run outdated OS and app code,
full virtualization would be useful. By "full virtualization"
I mean that since you can't necessarily emulate a very
modular system call interface, you have to model the whole
system including emulation of IO devices. FreeMWare would fit
this need very nicely.
-Kevin
