Quoting from the AMD official announcement:
AMD today introduced its Next-Generation AMD Opteron processor family, featuring industry-leading performance-per-watt and outstanding virtualization capabilities.
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The combination of AMD Virtualization? technology and Direct Connect Architecture provides a balanced approach to enhanced virtualization performance. AMD Virtualization is designed to extend AMD?s Direct Connect Architecture by providing additional silicon-based features to allow a hypervisor (the component in a native virtualization scenario that manages the partitioning of the processor) to easily support guest operating systems. The integrated DDR2 memory controller on Next-Generation AMD Opteron processors enhances virtualization and provides efficient isolation of virtual machine memory for improved security and support of virtual users. AMD Virtualization was developed in collaboration with AMD?s enterprise-focused OEM partners and ISVs currently shipping commercial virtualization software such as Microsoft, Novell, VMware and Xen…
While many waited for new AMD and Intel server processors, powered with virtualization enhancements, these features are no more so desirable after reading benchmark analysis VMware released about them.
Strangely VMware authors of the document claim CPU vendors developed these extensions in a too rigid way, vanishing performance improvements of software virtual machine monitors, while AMD says the technology has been developed in collaboration with virtualization players.
The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.