What does the "Virtualization" flag in BIOS do?

[Yigalb]

I have AMD Phenom 720 (3 cores) on Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P(rev. 1.0) - 4 GB DDR2 1066.

I use XP professional 32 bits, and I would like to install VMWARE server to run virtual Operating Systems on top of the XP (such as Linux).
Do I need to set the virtualization field in the BIOS?
Currently the default is Disable.

Thanks
Yigal

[oggmonster]

Am pretty sure you will need virtulization enabled if you wish to use VMWARE

Technology (VT). Formerly known as Vanderpool, this technology enables a CPU to act as if it were several CPUs working in parallel, in order to enable several operating systems to run at the same time in the same machine

[Yigalb]

Am pretty sure you will need virtulization enabled if you wish to use VMWARE

I was thinking so too, but here is what GB say in the user manual: "Virtualization allows a platform to run multiple operating systems and applications in independent partitions"

What does it mean independent partitions? I have only one partition, and the virtual OS is represented on a single file.
Also, I would guess that such BIOS flag would enable duplicated hardware that supports virtual OS. I have no idea if this is true, or what is the risk of this flag. In other flag: what happen when I set it?

[oggmonster]

Thats only if you have aplications in independant partitions. If you want to run multiple OS's at the same time using VMWARE you will need it enabled.

Today’s powerful x86 computer hardware was designed to run a single operating system and a single application. This leaves most machines vastly underutilized. Virtualization lets you run multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine,

from http://www.vmware.com/technology/virtualization.html