Your idea is a great one and it reminds me of a system I had used many years ago. I can't remember who made them, but they consisted of multiple PCs in a single chassis. Each card was its own machine and they shared a common interface for video and communications. The OS wasn't virtualized for each card though which would be different than what you would want. Then again, this was 25 years ago, so a lot more can probably be done today with something like this. The cards plugged into a chassis with what looked like a VME bus, or more like the older Multi-Bus interface. I remember both interfaces well, and used to troubleshoot some old "intelligent terminals" that used it. These were the old Ontel OP-1/xx terminals such as the OP-1/64 (64 for 64K of memory). The systems had various flavors, but specific cards for specific slots were required for all models such as slot 1 or slot 5 for the CPU, memory was next, followed by anything else. They came with floppy drives and hard drives. Quite interesting systems in their day.
Parallels seems to be far ahead of VM Ware with the virtualization, and has made a system that runs high-end graphics in virtual machines.
http://www.parallels.com/products/extreme/
This might be the type of thing we would need for Trainz. I have never tried this, but have used their Workstation and Mac versions. Their Workstation version ran much better than either Oracle Virtual Box or Microsoft's Virtual PC.
I too have a tablet device, but I'm not keen on the on-screen keyboard or the scrolling. I have difficulties with the interface due to Parkinson's disease because I freeze and hesistate when I scroll which causes unwanted windows to open or windows I want to use to resize unexpectedly on me. Typing is also an issue as I tend to double hit no matter how slow I set the settings for, or sometimes I don't get the characters because I can't type quickly enough. I also have one of the plug-in keyboards/docks for it, which for a normal person wold work well, but for me I can't use the tablet-mouse because of the freezing. So, like your iPad, my Asus 'Droid device has become an expensive ebook reader and photo album.
I ended up putting it aside and using my very heavy Alienware laptop instead when traveling. It's much less frustrating to use. I really don't think PCs as we know them will go away completely. The desktop games are still quite popular even though many people seem to enjoy the endless no-brain puzzle games. These things are fun, but have no repeat value to them after the first go around. If anything with EA bringing out a new SimCity in March 2013, this makes me wonder if the PC market is going away. This program is no fluff when it comes to network performance, graphics, and AI requirements. Being what it is, I doubt any of this could run on a tablet with the awkward interface and smaller disks.
John
Parallels seems to be far ahead of VM Ware with the virtualization, and has made a system that runs high-end graphics in virtual machines.
http://www.parallels.com/products/extreme/
This might be the type of thing we would need for Trainz. I have never tried this, but have used their Workstation and Mac versions. Their Workstation version ran much better than either Oracle Virtual Box or Microsoft's Virtual PC.
I too have a tablet device, but I'm not keen on the on-screen keyboard or the scrolling. I have difficulties with the interface due to Parkinson's disease because I freeze and hesistate when I scroll which causes unwanted windows to open or windows I want to use to resize unexpectedly on me. Typing is also an issue as I tend to double hit no matter how slow I set the settings for, or sometimes I don't get the characters because I can't type quickly enough. I also have one of the plug-in keyboards/docks for it, which for a normal person wold work well, but for me I can't use the tablet-mouse because of the freezing. So, like your iPad, my Asus 'Droid device has become an expensive ebook reader and photo album.
I ended up putting it aside and using my very heavy Alienware laptop instead when traveling. It's much less frustrating to use. I really don't think PCs as we know them will go away completely. The desktop games are still quite popular even though many people seem to enjoy the endless no-brain puzzle games. These things are fun, but have no repeat value to them after the first go around. If anything with EA bringing out a new SimCity in March 2013, this makes me wonder if the PC market is going away. This program is no fluff when it comes to network performance, graphics, and AI requirements. Being what it is, I doubt any of this could run on a tablet with the awkward interface and smaller disks.
John
Ten years from now, I hope we have interactive glasses that allow us to go into the game entirely.