Parallels Workstation is empowered by a lightweight hypervisor, a thin layer of software that "works" between the host computer’s hardware and the primary operating system. The lightweight hypervisor controls some of the host computer's hardware resources, which results in dramatically more stable, secure, and higher-performing virtual machines.
Parallels Workstation sophisticated virtualization engine enables each virtual machine to operate similarly to a physical computer. Each virtual machine has its own set of virtual hardware: processor, RAM, floppy, CD and DVD drives, I/O devices, and hard disk. See the Virtual Machine Hardware topic for the full list of Parallels virtual machine devices.Intel virtualization technology (VT-x) is fully supported by Parallels Workstation.