VMware announced the general availability of VMware Workstation 6, the sixth generation of its desktop virtualization software product. VMware Workstation 6 delivers groundbreaking advances in virtualization technology while offering numerous new features such as Windows Vista support, as well as industry-first support for multiple display monitors and USB 2.0 devices, making it highly appealing to IT administrators, developers, testers and other technical professionals and enthusiasts.

Introduced more than eight years ago, VMware Workstation enables pre- production testing of desktops and servers in virtual machines, rehosting of legacy applications, rapid provisioning and resetting of multi-tier environments and accelerated software development and testing. With an advanced feature set and broad support for x86 operating systems, VMware Workstation continues to be the "gold standard" virtualization product for desktop and laptop computers.

"This feature-packed release of VMware Workstation demonstrates our commitment to delivering cutting-edge products that help enable users to maximize the benefit of virtualization on the desktop," said Dan Chu, vice president of emerging products and markets at VMware. "VMware Workstation 6 raises the bar significantly for desktop virtualization-it is a must-have product and the only choice for serious desktop virtualization users."

"As a software company, we have to support a multitude of operating systems, so VMware Workstation is invaluable to me as a developer every day of the week," said Mike Spragg, technical director at E1 Business, a CRM solution provider for mid-size companies. "With VMware Workstation 6, I can upgrade to Windows Vista, which will allow me to utilize all 4GB of my laptop's memory. I also like the headless mode, which lets me minimize virtual machines and come back to them later."

"VMware Workstation is one of the strongest tools in our toolbox," said Brett Shavers, managing principal at NTI Associates, a company specializing in forensic work. "VMware Workstation helps us with our forensic investigations, enabling us to restore individual workstations and networks to the exact state of a machine under investigation so we can test for trojans and viruses. We are excited about upgrading to VMware Workstation 6 for its support of USB 2.0 devices, which will enable us to run our forensic processing applications on the fastest running hardware available-helping us save time and avoid delays in our results."

"I am a developer who works primarily with Windows Vista x64, so VMware Workstation's 64-bit support is very useful to me," said James Michels, head of technology at Bluefin Trading, a private trading firm specializing in equities, debt, option and derivatives trading. "Before I release my code, I regularly use VMware Workstation to try the application out on 32-bit Windows Vista as well as 32-bit Windows XP. Additionally, I have fresh installs to test out applications against. And I can do all of this on a single desktop. Once you use VMware Workstation, you can't imagine life without it."

VMware Workstation continues to be the most advanced desktop virtualization product for industry-standard PCs. Only VMware Workstation offers broad operating system support for Windows, Linux, NetWare, Solaris x86 and FreeBSD. The product also features a sophisticated architecture that includes full 64-bit support, industry-first support for up to 10 network interface cards and experimental support for two-way Virtual SMP. New features in VMware Workstation include:

* Windows Vista support: Users can deploy Windows Vista as a guest or host operating system, facilitating re-hosting of legacy systems, enabling upgrade and migration projects with minimal end-user disruption and simplifying Windows Vista evaluations.

* Multiple monitor display: Users can configure one virtual machine to span multiple monitors or multiple virtual machines to each display on separate monitors with this industry-first capability, enhancing desktop productivity.

* USB 2.0 support: Users can take advantage of high-performance peripherals such as Apple iPods and fast storage devices.

* ACE authoring capabilities: As a companion to VMware Workstation 6, VMware now offers a VMware ACE Option Pack, which enables VMware Workstation 6 users to create secure, centrally manageable virtual machines. Mobility is one of the primary benefits of this Option Pack, as it allows users to securely transport virtual machines on portable media devices such as USB memory sticks.

* Integrated Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) functionality: Users can create a virtual machine in minutes by "cloning" an existing physical computer.

* Integrated virtual debugger: Users can deploy, run and debug programs inside a virtual machine directly from their preferred integrated development environments (IDEs), accelerating debugging with this industry-first integration with Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio.

* Background virtual machine execution: Users can run virtual machines in the background without the VMware Workstation user interface for an uncluttered user experience.

* Automation APIs: Users can write scripts and programs that automate and help quicken virtual machine testing with support for VIX API 2.0.

In addition, VMware Workstation 6 advances the state of the art in virtualization technology with groundbreaking new capabilities including:

* Continuous virtual machine record and replay (experimental): Users can record the execution of a virtual machine, including all inputs, outputs and decisions made along the way. On demand, the user can go "back in time" to the start of the recording and replay execution, guaranteeing that the virtual machine will perform exactly the same operations every time and ensuring bugs can be reproduced and resolved.

* Virtual Machine Interface (VMI) support (experimental): VMware Workstation 6 is the first virtualization platform to allow execution of paravirtualized guest operating systems that implement the VMI interface.

Pricing and Availability
VMware Workstation 6 for both Windows and Linux host operating systems has a list price of $189 and is available for electronic download today at http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/.

The product can also be purchased through the network VMware of resellers and distributors.