Parallels And Apple Servers

Yahoo! Finance is running an article from TechIQ about Parallels potentially giving Apple a boost in Xserve sales with an Enterprise-edition of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Quote:

SWsoft, the company that makes the popular Parallels virtualization software for Apple Macintoshes, is preparing an encore for Apple servers, The VAR Guy hears. The move could provide customers with an innovative solution for running Windows, Mac OS and Linux side by side on a departmental or small business server. And that could give Apple server sales a boost.

Rarely has a company “out innovated” Apple on its own platforms. But the existing Parallels Desktop for Mac is widely considered a better solution than Apple’s own Boot Camp software for running Windows and Mac OS X on Apple hardware. Those in the know suspect SWsoft will have another hit on its hands when the company extends its software to departmental and small business servers.

New EFI Firmware May Fix Parallels/VTI-x Issues (Nov 13, 2006)

Some are reporting on the Parallels forums and elsewhere, that they are no longer having to do the “sleep trick” to get the Intel virtualization technology (VTI-x) to kick in for Parallels. You have to install the update and then power the machine all the way off – rebooting wont’ necessarily make it work properly.

Updated Firmware:
- Mac Pro Update
- iMac Update
- MacBook Pro Update
- Mac mini Update
- MacBook Update

All of these updates do the following:

Fixes several Boot Camp, start up, and wake-from-sleep issues (except for the Mac Pros).

Also: Firmware Restoration CD v1.2

Mac Pro/Core 2 Duo Users and Boxed/Retail Parallels Desktop

If you bought the retail copy of Parallels Desktop, and have a Mac Pro or a Core 2 Duo-based Mac (iMac, new MacBook Pros), it is highly recommended that you upgrade to Build #1970 of Parallels Desktop. This thread by Andrew at the Parallels support forum explains why:

There are a lot of complains from Mac Pro and newest Core 2 Duo Mac users about kernel panics or “grayed screen with different languages” on virtual machine startup.

The problem in using old Parallels Desktop Build 1848 (or 1848.2) which was released prior to Apple announce of Mac Pro and Core 2 Duo Macs and it is not compatible with these Macs.

Unfortunately this build is still available in retail stores (even in Apple stores) and staff is not aware of this problem.

If you have any problems with old retail version of Parallels Desktop – please upgrade it on build 1970! It can be freely download from our web site – http://www.parallels.com/en/download/desktop/ . Your permanent registration key will work with this version.

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.4.8

Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.8 a few days ago, for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.

Some of the fixes/changes that may benefit Mac users interested in virtualization/emulation:
- Improves Apple File Sharing client performance by changing the default AFP WAN quantum size.. More…
- Windows File Sharing now generates only one process, avoiding an issue that could cause a Mac OS X computer to become unresponsive if it won a master browser election.
- Improves the accuracy of Rosetta numerics and addresses Altivec translation issues on Intel-based Macs.
- Adds support on Intel-based Macs for multiple cores to LAPACK and BLAS routines in the Accelerate framework; the maximum number of threads used by Accelerate BLAS routines is now limited by the environment variable VECLIB_MAXIMUM_THREADS; addresses an issue with some complex BLAS routines in the Accelerate framework that were encountering an illegal instruction.

Some virtualization software uses Windows File Sharing/Apple File Sharing to transfer data back and forth between the virtual environment and Mac OS X, and this is a welcome fix. I played around with Parallels after having upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.8, but I had also upgraded to Parallels Build 1922 as well and while things felt faster, I did not have a chance to do before and after comparisons, to see where any improvements were made.

Intel Developer Forum: Apple Has Two “Featured Sessions”

InfoWorld is running an article about Intel’s finally, truly, endorsing Apple, as well as what Apple has done for Intel (among other things, helping to create a market for Intel’s Core Duo CPUs). How is Intel doing this? By giving Apple two “feature sessions” at next week’s Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

Excerpts from the article:

Intel has put two Apple sessions at the top of its Featured Sessions list for the upcoming Intel Developer Forum. That isn’t Apple doing Intel a favor by filling a couple of empty slots in the schedule. Intel is touching a toe to that third rail for component manufacturers: Endorsement. And while people at Intel and Apple are scrambling right now to get their denials in a row, I want to drain this issue of its intrigue while at the same time highlighting its importance and pointing out that at least a little endorsement is overdue. After all, among first tier OEMs in the U.S., Apple is the only one remaining that buys CPUs exclusively from Intel. That deserves more than a cupcake. Intel should greet Steve Jobs’ visits to the Intel campus by scattering rose petals before him.

Steve Jobs has been lionizing Intel for over a year. He and Apple’s PR and Marketing have been making public mockery of Apple’s PowerPC systems as they’re replaced by x86, even though some of those PowerPC boxes were fewer than six months old at the time of their replacement. Apple redesigned Macs’ packaging and on-line collateral to play up Intel’s logo and technology. Although the story has never been told, Jobs (certainly not single-handedly) brought Apple to the brink of meltdown to ship Intel Macs way ahead of schedule, seizing the opportunity presented by Core Duo, a CPU that Intel had relegated to the low-volume embedded market. Apple created a broad market among Intel notebook OEMs for Core Duo.

With this trial balloon with sessions at IDF, Intel is playing favorites, just a little, with its poster OEM. For me, that passes the sniff test and looks like good business. Intel is giving Apple some fraction of its due and is creditably being completely open about it.

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