Re:Windows for Arm on M1 Mac Successfully Virtualized
by jlokier on Friday November 27, 2020 @05:29PM
(#25233129)
It's probably doable because VMware did something very similar about 20 years ago, back before x86 had virtualisation hardware.
That was x86 on x86, but it took a similar level of sophistication then as with cross-architecture "software virtualisation" now to run all 32-bit Windows software, as well as all 16-bit software, other OSes such as Linux, BSD and MS-DOS and Netware, etc.
Considering all the things around like self-modifying code, generated code, thunks etc in Windows and other OSes and applications, VMware did a great job of scanning all code for entry points, intercepting every path that couldn't be executed directly, patching what needed to be patched.
I expect they can revive that approach with cross-architecture translation now, and I would be very surprised if VMware and Parallels are not working on exactly this for x86-on-ARM VMs right now.
That was x86 on x86, but it took a similar level of sophistication then as with cross-architecture "software virtualisation" now to run all 32-bit Windows software, as well as all 16-bit software, other OSes such as Linux, BSD and MS-DOS and Netware, etc.
Considering all the things around like self-modifying code, generated code, thunks etc in Windows and other OSes and applications, VMware did a great job of scanning all code for entry points, intercepting every path that couldn't be executed directly, patching what needed to be patched.
I expect they can revive that approach with cross-architecture translation now, and I would be very surprised if VMware and Parallels are not working on exactly this for x86-on-ARM VMs right now.