Hardware-Assisted Virtualization

Term: Hardware-Assisted Virtualization (Intel VT-x, AMD-V)

Definition: CPU features that help the hypervisor run VMs faster and more securely by offloading low-level virtualization tasks to the processor.

Context/Example: Enabling “Intel VT-x” or “AMD-V” in BIOS/UEFI makes VMs run close to native speed instead of emulating privileged instructions in software.

Related Concepts: Full virtualization, CPU privilege rings, performance overhead.