Since this morning's Windows Azure announcement, a bunch of random details have materialized. Here's a rundown of what we've heard:
- Azure is being described as a new OS, albeit one based on the existing codebase. The Azure team is working alongside the Core OS team, and there's cross-pollination between the groups. For example, one of the improvements made for Windows 7 is an increase in the number of processors/cores/logical processors that can be used (currently, the number of processors supported is the same as the bitness of the OS; 32 in 32-bit, 64 in 64-bit); the Azure team is able to take this new, expanded ability and use it itself.
Conversely, Azure has extended HyperV to make it use hardware virtualization support (it wasn't specified, but presumably things like VT-d and NPT/EPT) to increase its scalability; this change is being propagated back to the Core OS group and should become a part of future Windows Server and/or HyperV releases.