VMWare has rolled out its Fusion 3 virtualization platform for Mac OS X. The $80 Fusion 3 – which offers 50 new features – allows users to run native Windows applications with “Mac simplicity.”
According to VMWare, Fusion 3 is fully optimized for Snow Leopard with a 64-bit core engine that was specifically designed to function alongside Windows 7’s 64-bit kernel.
Fusion 3 also supports Windows Aero, Flip 3D, OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 for 3D gaming.
In addition, the virtualization platform uses four way SMP to maximize performance on the latest iMac and Mac Pro models by lowering overhead and facilitating up to 2X faster resume time for a suspended virtual machine.
The SMP feature allows systems to efficiently balance workloads by shifting tasks between processors.
VMWare Fusion 3 has already garnered a number of endorsements, including one from Dale Puckett of Brainworks Software.
“I am not a virtualization guru, in fact, I know very little about how it all works, but as an early VMware Fusion 3 user, I don’t need to – it just works,” said Puckett.
“At work I use a Dell laptop running 64-bit Windows 7. At night and on the weekends, VMware Fusion 3 makes it possible for me to continue my development using my iMac running Windows 7 side-by-side with Snow Leopard. And as a Microsoft developer, support for features like Windows Aero makes all the difference in the world.”
