By Claire Reilly 'Wow! Run Windows on your Mac!' That's the exuberant call to action being spruiked by Parallels with the launch of Parallels Desktop 9 — a desktop virtualisation software that allows consumers to run Windows and Mac programs simultaneously on the same desktop or laptop, without rebooting.
[Check out the latest version of Parallels: Review: Parallels Desktop 12 - How to use Windows on a Mac]
Hot on the heels of VMware's update of Fusion 3 comes Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.0. Like Fusion, Parallels now boasts support for Microsoft's WDDM graphics, allowing Aero effects in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
And as with Fusion 3, Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.0 can list many new features and interface tweaks, to what was already a well-specified and mature application. In fact, there's so much room for adjustment, you may find yourself searching through pages of settings and preference in order to get the program working just the way you like.
In addition to the existing Coherence mode, which integrates discrete Windows programs within the usual Apple Mac OS X environment, a new Crystal mode hides the gubbins of a Microsoft OS even further. It hides the Parallels top menus and its Dock icon, putting a Start menu in the top toolbar, with installed Windows apps available from a folder shortcut in the righthand side of the Dock.
In either of these mix-up modes, Windows' windows lose their Aero translucency against the Mac desktop, although this can still be seen between overlapping Windows' windows. And like Fusion, there can be a loss of smooth fluidity when moving windows around.
Modality, meanwhile, puts a complete Windows desktop frame into a miniature and semi-transparent floating window, good for keeping an eye on several running VMs at the same time.
MacLook tries to further the Mac-Windows integration by giving Windows apps the appearance of Mac OS X, using Stardock MyColours to skin Windows. If you really can't stand to see Redmond's GUI elements, this is for you.
Changing to Coherence or Crystal can take several seconds, leaving the Mac somewht unresponsive. We found changing to MacLook even more enervating, with some messy looking interface elements from Windows apps that were open before the changeover. If you're going to use this interface, we'd suggest doing so before opening any Windows programs.
In general, these integration choices will suit anyone who has occasional Windows apps to run but don't need the full Windows operating system experience. But be aware that taking away the regular Windows desktop leaves those programs' windows without quite the same quality of on-screen rendering.
Another practical feature is full support of the Mac portable trackpad, and Apple mouse control. On a MacBook, for example, you can take advantage of the multi-touch pad for pinch-to-zoom and two- and three-finger scrolling and swiping. And if you have a new Magic Mouse, you'll find all its scrolling and swiping gestures supported too, ironically giving Parallels better control of a virtualised Window OS than you'll find on a physical Windows PC itself.
Of other numerous changes, the ability to lock down settings may be welcomed by IT managers looking to roll out the program in business or computer lab environments. An express Windows installation option uncovered a useful trick - choosing which version of Windows 7 to install from a single-version Ultimate disc. By ignoring the serial code screen while installing, you can choose which of several versions of Windows 7 to install, just as you could with Windows Vista before.
A Virtual Machine List shows all available VMs, which can be individually coloured for ease of browsing. Unlike VMware Fusion, we couldn't find an easy way to call up this list through a keyboard shortcut, with Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.0 generally a little behind in its key shortcut options. Nor will the list show a thumbnail of a suspended VM.
Besides the revised graphics driver for Windows, now up to DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3, and the same as Fusion, Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.0 also offers OpenGL 2.1, enabling a much better interface for Linux OS guests - for example, allowing for startling Compiz eye candy effects. We found these interface effects worked even more liquid than on physical installations of Linux we've tried recently.
With a Windows XP Pro guest OS set to synchronise time to the Mac OS X host, we measured the performance of Parallels 5.0 using WorldBench 6. Hardware was an Apple MacBook Pro 2.4GHz (Early 2008), with 4GB physical RAM, and nVidia 8600M graphics and 256MB video RAM.
In the case of VMware Fusion, we had seen a small but measurable increase in speed when moving from v2 to v3 - from 71 to 73 points - and Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.0 showed a similar benefit. It was only a one point net increase, but this time Parallels 5 finished with a score of 75 points, highlighting it as the fastest virtualisation solution we've ever recorded.
Graphics tests were even more emphatic in showing increased performance. Playing FEAR at Maximum quality settings, 1024x768, the latest version of VMware Fusion reached 16 frames per second (fps), still four points behind the average framerate of the last version of Parallels 4. And with Parallels Desktop for Mac 5.0, we saw the results in this test hit a very impressive 31fps.
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Virtualization software maker Parallels Inc. and graphics hardware vendor Nvidia Corp. have teamed to enable the virtualization of graphics-intensive applications used by engineers and digital animators.
The software, called Parallels Workstation Extreme, will enable multiple computer-aided design (CAD), seismic modeling, digital rendering and other applications to be run virtually on either Microsoft Corp.'s Windows or the Linux operating systems.
Virtualizing such applications has generally been considered impractical because of the inability of virtualization software from Parallels or VMware Inc. to render graphics or animation quickly.
As a result, many engineers and animators today have multiple workstations at their desks, each of which is used to run one or two applications, according to Brian Good, vice president of business development at Parallels. Parallels Workstation Extreme will enable users to run multiple graphics-rich apps side by side without having to reboot, he said.
What is Parallels' technique? The software, rather than trying to process the multimedia within the virtualization layer, offloads it back to the hardware layer, the graphics card.
That allows users to enjoy 'bare-metal performance,' said Andrew Page, senior product manager for professional solutions at Nvidia. 'It's letting the graphics card do what it does best.'
Enabling the virtualization software to offload rendering work back to the hardware layer was no trivial task, Good said, and it required a year of software engineering.
The software supports the OpenGL graphics API (application programming interface) used by most animation and engineering applications, instead of Microsoft's DirectX technology, which is popular for games.
Parallels Workstation Extreme also supports Nvidia's CUDA technology. For applications specially rewritten for it, CUDA enables the shifting of processing work from the CPU to the graphics processing unit, which is usually underutilized, for faster application performance.
Parallels Workstation Extreme will be available within six weeks and will cost US$400, Good said.
So what's the catch? To enable high performance, each virtualized app must have a whole graphics card dedicated to it. Moreover, the card must be one of Nvidia's professional-grade graphics cards, such as its Quadro FX 3800, 4800 or 5800. The 3800 cards start at US$1,199 each, according to Page.
In addition, Parallels Workstation Extreme requires the latest in hardware. So far, Parallels has only certified its software to run on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Z800 workstation using Intel Corp.'s new Nehalem processors, Good said.
The software supports Windows XP and Vista and Linux. Good said there were no plans yet to support Unix or Mac OS X.
Parallels is best known for its Parallels Desktop for the Mac, which enables Macintosh hardware owners to run Windows applications alongside Mac OS X ones. The software has nearly 2 million users, Good said.
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The latest Parallels Desktop 4.0, released last fall, enables Mac users to run Windows CAD applications using OpenGL, though presumably not at the same level of performance.
But Good said the technology inside Workstation Extreme will likely make its way into future releases of Parallels Desktop for Mac or possibly Linux.
Parallels For Mac Support
That could allow Linux or Mac users running Parallels to play the latest 3-D Windows games or watch Blu-ray video -- two activities that Parallels Desktop today doesn't support well on the Mac. Parallels has no Windows-Linux consumer virtualization software today. However, Good gave no timetable on when the technology would appear.
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