IA64 Windows in VM on x64 Computer

Discussion in 'Virtualization' started by WinDev, Dec 21, 2013.

  1. WinDev

    WinDev MDL Expert

    Jul 6, 2013
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    Is it possible to run VM with IA64 Windows on x64 computer?

    For example: Windows XP IA64, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Itanium, Windows Server 2008 Itanium, Windows Server 2008 R2 Itanium...
     
  2. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
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    Nov 30, 2009
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  3. WinDev

    WinDev MDL Expert

    Jul 6, 2013
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    I ask because I will buy a x64 computer next days. And I want to install one Itanium OS to test. I will try QEMU.
     
  4. kelorgo

    kelorgo MDL Addicted

    Oct 29, 2012
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    No. None of the mainstream virtualisation products (VMWare, VirtualBox, Hyper-V, QEmu) support an IA64 guest. Conversely, they don't support running on an IA64 host.

    The only exception in theory is that you can run QEmu on an IA64 host and emulate (but not virtualise) x86/AMD64, but that would be very slow and unusable. Also, QEmu does not emulate IA64.

    There are some products out there that can support an IA64 guest on an IA64 host (for example Xen), but that won't help you.

    The reason for this is simple: virtualisation (as opposed to emulation) relies on running the guest's code natively on the host's CPU, which requires that the guest is using the same architecture as the host. IA64 is very different from x86/AMD64. The reason why x86 and AMD64 can be intermixed is because they are closely related to each other, and the AMD64 architecture is an extension of the x86 architecture. This is also what allows you to run 32-bit programs in a AMD64 (not IA64) OS.