What does it take to run the Windows Phone 8 emulator?

Question

With the release of Windows Phone 8 finally out there, we finally have access to the SDK. I've heard that it requires special hardware or something for the emulator though. What are the system requirements for the phone emulator?

Answer 1

You need Windows 8 x64 Pro or Enterprise, Visual Studio 2012 (or the express edition from the SDK) and CPU supporting SLAT for running Hyper-V - WP8 emulators are running as Hyper-V virtual machines.
(In other words no Linux, or Macs with processors older than the Intel Core i3, i5 or i7, no other edition of Windows, no Visual Studio 2010 or older, no x86 version of Windows, no Core2Duo and older CPUs, etc.)
Edit: You can use Macs for developing for WP8, but only if you install Windows 8 on it.
https://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk

Answer 2

Intel calls their SLAT technology EPT (Extended Page Table).

Here is a list of EPT enabled CPUs http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology

You can also use Sysinternals Coreinfo to check your CPU: coreinfo.exe -v

The console output should be: EPT * Supports Intel extended page tables (SLAT)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc835722