Hardware-assisted virtualization (HAV) is only possible with hardware, hypervisors, and operating systems that support it. In the mid 2000s, both Intel and AMD came out with their hardware extensions to specifically support virtualization in the form of the AMD-V and Intel VT-x extensions. Most servers support these vendor extensions today, but they need to be enabled or turned on in the BIOS of the server.
As the hardware vendors AMD and Intel make more gains in developing their hardware to interoperate better with virtualization, the HAV model will continue to make gains in performance. One example of how this is done is by taking privileged CPU instructions to automatically trap the hypervisor and run them in what is called the root mode privilege level. Also, the virtual machine state can be stored within structures inside the Intel VT-X or AMD-V structures.
Advances in the form of hardware-assisted virtualization by vendors such as Intel and AMD are making...