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Xen is an open source, high performance virtual machine monitor developed in collaboration with the Cambridge University Computer Lab. Xen effectively virtualises the physical hardware and enables the execution of multiple Guest Operating Systems simultaneously on the same machine with little or no overhead while providing strong resource isolation between virtual machines. This is partially achieved by presenting guest operating systems with a slightly modified and simplified architecture (a technique termed para-virtualisation) and by making guest OSes aware of that they are executing on a virtualised platform. In this talk I will give an overview of the Xen virtual machine monitor and describe some of its implementation details. I will also give an outlook on the next generation I/O architecture for Xen, currently under development. This new IO architecture, which we call Virtual Channel Processors (VCPs), will enable fault and resource isolation for device drivers and other IO functions.
