Hybrid-Virtualization-Enhanced Virtualization for Linux

The authors propose hybrid-virtualization that combines paravirtualization and hardware-assisted virtualization. It can achieve equivalent or better performance than software-only para-virtualization, taking the full advantage of each technology. They implemented a hybrid-virtualization Linux with para-virtualization, which required much fewer modifications to Linux, and yet achieved equivalent or better performance than software-only XenLinux. The hybrid-virtualization employs para-virtualization for I/O, interrupt controllers, and timer to simplify the system and optimize performance. For CPU virtualization, it allows one to use the same code as in the original kernel.