Red Hat, in an effort to openly collaborate with partners to drive the future of virtualisation. 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 Virtualisation jor Desktops product that is currently in beta. SPICE is an adaptive remote rendering protocol designed speCifically for virtual environments. With its modern. high-performance communications technology. SPICE aims to provide a seamless user experience for to day's bandwidth-intensive applications such as multi-media and VoIP, offering a user experience comparable to that of a physical desktop. 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 one of three main technology components included in Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops, a solution set currently in a private beta version with general availability expected in 2010.