Supported processors for VMware Workstation 4 and above

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

You see this error message when installing VMware Workstation on a computer with an older x86 processor:

Setup has detected that your CPU is not compatible with this VMware product

Environment

VMware Workstation 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 4.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 4.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 6.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 5.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 6.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 5.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)

Resolution

VMware Workstation uses certain processor instructions that are available on most recent x86 processors but not on earlier processors. There are other processors that have their own emulation layers that are likewise unsupported.

For information on the host system requirements, see the Host System Requirements section of the Workstation documentation:

• Workstation 11.x
• Workstation 10.x
  
• Workstation 9.x
• Workstation 8.x
• Workstation 7.x
• Workstation 6.5.x
• Workstation 5.5.x
• Workstation 4.5.x

These processors are not supported:

• Intel: P5, P54C, P55C, P24T
• NexGen: Nx586
• Cyrix: M1
• AMD: K5, K6, K6-2, K6-III
• VIA: C3
• Transmeta Crusoe
• Intel Itanium