12 Change log
This section summarizes the changes between VirtualBox versions. Note that this change log is not exhaustive; not all changes are listed.
VirtualBox version numbers consist of three numbers separated by dots where the first number represents the major version, the 2nd number the minor version and the 3rd one the build number. Build numbers of official releases are always even. An odd build number represents an internal development or test build.
12.1 Version 3.1.0 Beta 2 (2009-11-19)
This version is a major update. The following major new features were added:
•Teleportation (aka live migration); migrate a live VM session from one machine to another
•VM states can now be restored from arbitrary snapshots instead of only the last one, and new snapshots can be taken from other snapshots as well (“branched snapshots”; see chapter 1.8, Snapshots, page 25)
•2D video acceleration for Windows guests; use the host video hardware for over- lay stretching and colour conversion (see chapter 4.10, Hardware 2D video accel- eration for Windows guests, page 73)
•More flexible storage attachments: CD/DVD drives can be attached to arbitrary storage controllers, and there can be more than one such drive (chapter 5, Virtual storage, page 76)
•Support for Parallels version 2 disk image (HDD) files; see chapter 5.2, Disk image files (VDI, VMDK, VHD, HDD), page 79
•The network attachment type can be changed while a VM is running
•Experimental USB support for OpenSolaris hosts making use of the latest USB enhancements in Solaris Nevada 124 and higher
•Significant performance improvements for PAE and AMD64 guests
•Experimental support for EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface; see chapter 3.12, Alternative firmware (EFI), page 58)
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