Intel CPU arcana: Haswell virtualization and Transactional Sychronization together

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

Haswell is the new Intel generation of processors being rolled out over 
the coming months.  As usual, it comes with a few new features.

At the TLUG meeting, I was surprised to hear that Intel CPU chips with the 
new TSX feature 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_Synchronization_Extensions> 
would not have the virtualization features (VT-x, VT-d, etc.).

This turns out not to be the case.  For example, the Intel Core i7-4770 
has both
<http://ark.intel.com/products/75122>

That is a top-of-the-line consumer processor 
<http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/asus-asus-m51-desktop-pc-intel-core-i7-4770-2tb-hdd-10gb-ram-windows-8-m51ac/10254786.aspx?path=72d164b9e11a45b5dfc40adbe7b002cfen02&SearchPageIndex=1>

<http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=81326&vpn=BX80646I74770&manufacture=Intel&promoid=1195>

As far as I can tell, the i5-4670 is almost the same (no hyperthreading, 
6MiB L3 cache instead of 8MiB, slightly slower turbo).  And it is quite a 
bit cheaper.
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists