Red Hat has open sourced its SPICE (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environment) hosted virtual desktop protocol. SPICE is a core component of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops product that is currently in beta.
Through the Spice project, Red Hat will collaborate with its partners and the open source community to expand the development of the protocol in an effort to help break down barriers to virtualisation adoption.
SPICE is an adaptive remote rendering protocol designed for virtual environments. SPICE aims to provide a better user experience for bandwidth applications such as multi-media and VoIP. SPICE is one of three technology components included in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation for Desktops, a service set currently in a private beta with general availability expected in 2010.
Brian Stevens, CTO and vice president of engineering at Red Hat, said: “By open sourcing this technology, we are allowing our industry partners and the community to contribute to the future of virtualisation with us.
“The SPICE protocol is designed to optimise performance by automatically adapting to the graphics and communications environment that it is running in, so vendors have a terrific opportunity to enhance it for their specific applications.”
