Xhyve

xhyve is a macOS virtual machine manager and virtualization tool that leverages the native hypervisor framework to run guest operating systems in userspace. It provides a virtualization layer for executing guest systems with hardware acceleration.

The project features a hardware pass-through hypervisor that maps physical host devices directly to guest virtual machines to increase performance. It includes a remote framebuffer server and VNC access to enable interaction with the guest display and input devices from external devices.

The tool covers virtual hardware emulation for storage, networking, and display components. It also handles network configuration by assigning persistent IP addresses to virtual machines through unique identifiers and pre-configured device profiles.

Features

Hardware-Accelerated Hypervisors - Uses native kernel frameworks to provide a hardware-accelerated hypervisor that executes guest operating systems in userspace.

macOS Virtualization - Leverages the native macOS hypervisor framework to run guest operating systems with hardware acceleration.

Virtual Machine Management - Manages virtualized hardware peripherals, networking, and the execution of guest operating systems on macOS.

Physical Device Pass-through - Implements mechanisms for assigning physical host hardware directly to a guest operating system to increase performance.

Virtual Hardware Emulation - Provides virtualized hardware emulation for storage, networking, and display components to support the guest OS.

Hardware Passthrough - Provides the capability to map physical host devices directly to a virtual machine for improved performance.

Virtualization Networking - Implements networking configurations that allow virtual machines to communicate using persistent IP addresses.

Hardware Emulators - Implements virtualized storage, networking, and display hardware components to enable guest operating systems to run on the host.

User-Mode Execution - Executes the entire virtualization environment within a standard userspace process to isolate the guest from the host.

Framebuffer Display Servers - Implements a display server that renders graphical output from a virtual machine directly to a remote framebuffer.

Remote Framebuffer Protocols - Provides a remote framebuffer server to transmit graphical display updates and input from a guest to remote clients.

VNC Kiosk Servers - Provides a built-in VNC server and framebuffer for remote visual interaction with the guest operating system.

Remote VM Guest Interaction - Enables visual interaction with the guest display and input devices via a remote framebuffer server.

Virtual Machine Consoles - Enables connection to the display and input devices of a virtual machine via a built-in remote server.

Terminal Utilities - Lightweight virtualization solution for macOS.

machyvexhyve

Features

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