Architecture

NxTop’s patent-pending intelligent desktop virtualization suite consists of two core components: NxTop Engine and NxTop Center.

NxTop Engine is installed on laptops and desktop PCs.  Users can run multiple desktops and operating systems on their PCs at the same time and gain fast-boot access to the web and cloud applications. NxTop Engine can be used standalone or connected to NxTop Center for centralized management.

NxTop Center: Centralized management console used by IT professionals to create, deploy, update, and secure virtual desktops for execution on NxTop Engine, as well as to remotely manage and completely control PCs that are running NxTop Engine.

NxTop Center requires a very small data center footprint, a single small server can support over 1200 PCs.  It is not sensitive to network availability and latency, and makes extensive use of existing PC investments.

NxTop Engine

At the heart of NxTop Engine is a True Type-1 client hypervisor.  Type-1 hypervisor technology has long been the standard for data center virtualization, but Virtual Computer was the first to extend this key enabling technology to traditional desktop and laptop PCs.

Beware that "bare metal" does not mean a true type-1 hypervisor.  Some hypervisors claim to be "bare metal" or even claim type-1 but are really offering an integrated installer that installs an OS such as Linux on the machine at the same time as installing the hypervisor, giving the appearance of a type-1.  These hypervisors are still only type-2 in that they are completely reliant on the underlying operating system, making them vulnerable to security issues.

Virtual Computer offers a true type-1 hypervisor, which was developed by enhancing the opensource Xen hypervisor.  A true type-1 hypervisor provides the highest levels of performance and security.

The NxTop Engine offers the following features:

• High-quality graphics with multi-monitor support.
• Enhanced networking capable of supporting wired Ethernet, 802.11 wireless LAN, and both integrated and USB-based 3G/4G broadband connections.
• Granular power management functions and controls.
• Platform- and virtual-machine-level suspend and resume.
• High-performance support for a wide range of USB peripherals.
• Proper handling of PC-specific hardware events such as laptop lid closures.

NxTop uses hardware-assisted virtualization chip technologies like Intel Virtualization Technology (VT) and AMD-V to achieve key platform requirements such as hardware-enforced isolation and a high-performance user experience. NxTop is fully compatible with the latest offerings from both vendors in this area, for example Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d), and Intel’s first generation VT-x technology. As a result, NxTop runs on most business-class laptops purchased in 2007 or later.

NxTop Engine is designed to be highly compatible with Microsoft operating system and virtualization technology. NxTop virtual machines adopt the VHD virtual hard disk format pioneered by Microsoft and incorporate special paravirtualized drivers that provide a rich Windows experience on NxTop Engine.

In addition to its hypervisor technology, NxTop Engine also includes a sophisticated management layer that manages a secure communications channel to NxTop Center and executes numerous management and policy functions locally on the PC.

NxTop Center

NxTop Center Overview - Click to Enlarge

NxTop Center was designed to integrate simply into existing Microsoft server environments. NxTop Center’s management applications run on a standard Microsoft Windows Server 2008 platform with the Hyper-V virtualization role enabled. NxTop Center also includes a connector to Microsoft Active Directory, allowing IT administrators to import existing groups and users into the NxTop management model.

While NxTop Engine supports its own PC hypervisor technology, NxTop Center adopts the standard Hyper-V hypervisor for all server-side virtual machine creation and management functions. Virtual machines created on Hyper-V via the NxTop Center interface execute on NxTop Engine without the need for conversion tools or administrator intervention.

NxTop Center can be installed into the "parent partition" of a stand-alone Windows Server 2008 system, or it can also be deployed as a virtual machine as part of a broader Hyper-V infrastructure.

NxTop Center includes its own Ajax-based web interface, allowing IT teams to access a rich set of management capabilities "out of the box." In addition, all of NxTop Center’s management functions are API-addressable, providing endless options to customers who wish to integrate NxTop into a broader management architecture.