Most readers of this blog will already know about Windows 7’s XP Mode (despite my not writing about it) which allows Windows XP to run inside of 7. It is a really cool feature that will be a tremendous help to those running legacy applications. It is only available in the Business and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 and while it would be nice to have this feature available in all versions, it is not looking as promising as when it was first announced.
To quickly sum it up, Intel Sucks. That’s right it is not Microsoft’s fault, it’s Intel’s. Apparently when Intel is creating it’s multitude of processors for different computer manufactures they really like to change up the processors capabilities. For the XP Mode to work correctly it needs something called Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).
I realized how big a failing this is on Intel’s part when I tried to use the XP Mode on my personal laptop and found that despite it’s abundance of power, it does not have Virtualization Technology. Ed Bott from ZDNet also realized how big of a pain this could be for Intel owners and decided to create a list of processors and whether or not they support VT.
Desktop CPUS
| Core 2 Duo | |
| E4300/4400/4500/4600/4700 | NO |
| E6300/6320/6400/6420/6540/6550 | YES |
| E6600/6700/6750/6850 | YES |
| E7200/7300/7400/7500 | NO |
| E8190 | NO |
| E8200/8300/8400/8500/8600 | YES |
| Core 2 Extreme | |
| QX6700/6800/6850 | YES |
| QX9650/9770/9775 | YES |
| X6800 | YES |
| Core 2 Quad | |
| Q6600/6700 | YES |
| Q8200/8200S/8300/8400/8400S | NO |
| Q9300/9400/9400S | YES |
| Q9450/9550/9550S/9650 | YES |
| Core i7/Core i7 Extreme | |
| I7-920/940 | YES |
| I7-965 | YES |
| Pentium D/Pentium EE | |
| 805/820/830/840 | NO |
| 915/925/935/945 | NO |
| 920/930/940/950/960 | YES |
| 955/965 | YES |
| Pentium for Desktop | |
| E2140/2160/2180/2200/2220 | NO |
| E5200/5300/5400 | NO |
Mobile CPU products
| Core 2 Duo Mobile | |
| L7200/7300/7400/7500 | YES |
| P7350/7450 | NO |
| P7370 | YES |
| P8400/8600/8700/9500/9600 | YES |
| SL9300/9400/9600 | YES |
| SP9300/9400/9600 | YES |
| SU9300/9400/9600 | YES |
| T5200/5250/5270/5300/5450/5470 | NO |
| T5500/5600 | YES |
| T5550/5670/5750/5800/5850/5870/5900 | NO |
| T6400/6570 | NO |
| T7100/7200/7250/7300/7400 | YES |
| T7500/7600/7700/7800 | YES |
| T8100/8300 | YES |
| T9300/9400/9500/9550/9600/9800 | YES |
| U7500/U7600 | YES |
| Core 2 Extreme Mobile | |
| QX9300 | YES |
| X7800/7900 | YES |
| X9000/9100 | YES |
| Core 2 Quad Mobile | |
| Q9000 | YES |
| Q9100 | NO |
| Core 2 Solo | |
| SU3300/3500 | YES |
| U2100/2200 | YES |
| Core Duo | |
| L2300/2400/2500 | YES |
| T2050/2250 | NO |
| T2300/2400/2500/2600/2700 | YES |
| T2300E/2350/2450 | NO |
| U2400/2500 | YES |
| Core Solo | |
| T1300/1400 | YES |
| T1350 | NO |
| U1300/1400/1500 | YES |
When it comes to AMD products it is a little simpler to know if you have a AMD-V capable processor. The general processor “rule” is that “if it is a DDR2 and is not a Sempron, then it has AMD-V”. - via VirtualIron
Supported are AMD Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 with family “F” or “G” on socket AM2 (not 939), Turion 64 X2, Opteron 2nd generation and 3rd-generation, Phenom, and all newer processors. Sempron processors do not include support for AMD-V. – via Wikipedia
AMD has been struggling as of late but this might give them an edge in the market. The biggest problem with all of this is that most large corporations that would take advantage of XP Mode typically use lower end CPU’s and machines for their employees.
This is not Microsoft’s fault by any means but it will still affect them in the short term with companies debating whether or not to upgrade. If a company has multiple processors to deal with it will likely complicate things for them and just encourage them to wait until they can afford to upgrade the hardware at the same time.
Check It Out> ZDNet via WinSupersite
UPDATE: Both Intel and AMD have processor identification tools that you can use to see which processor you have. Intel® Processor Identification Utility
AMD Virtualization™ Technology and Microsoft® Hyper-V™ System Compatibility Check Utility
Hmm. I have a 15″ MBP 2.4GHz, early 2008 version. Know of an easy way to determine what Intel’s mobile processor model number is in this beast? Doesn’t appear to be in System Profiler.