Parallels partners with Intel

Quoting from the SWsoft official announcement:

Parallels, maker of award winning virtualization solutions for the Windows, Linux and Macintosh communities, announced today that it is collaborating with Intel, the world leader in microprocessor development, to deliver new usage models in Workstations and Clients, an effort designed to accelerate adoption of virtualization in production desktop environments. This collaboration will further enhance the value of Intel vPro technology to the end customers.

…The companies are engaged at an engineering level to accelerate the development and implementation of key workstation and desktop technologies, including Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel VT-d) and Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT). The two companies will work together with major OEM hardware manufacturers and independent software vendors to develop virtualization-powered workstation and client computing solutions.

Parallels intends to become the industry’s first virtualization software vendor to provide support for VT-d and TXT in Clients and Workstations…

The news is very interesting, mostly the last claim, considering Intel is already deep involved with VMware, where they intested $218 million at IPO time and gained a seat in board of directors.

Besides VMware, Intel aso already invested in SWsoft (with $12.4 million in 2005, with other VC firms) and in Virtual Iron (with $8.5 million in 2005).