with respect to running FS on a VM, one thing that has not been mentioned is the need for a real time kernel in the underlying host. This can be a big issue when running on a hosted vm in the cloud, as typically you will not have a choice of kernel, nor the ability to recompile. I have had bad experience with several hosting companies claiming to run 10msec kernels, but in reality running 25 or even 100 msec versions - lot of potential for dropped and out of order speech with the later. packetandy