Cloud Computing

CHAPTER 3 CPU Virtualization

This chapter explains the concept of a virtual machine as well as the technology that embodies it. The technology is rather complex, inasmuch as it encompasses the developments in computer architecture, operating systems, and even data communications. The issues at stake here are most critical to Cloud Computing, and so we will take our time.

To this end, the name of the chapter is something of a misnomer: it is not only the CPU that is being virtualized, but the whole of the computer, including its memory and devices. In view of that it might have been more accurate to omit the word “CPU” altogether, had it not been for the fact that in the very concept of virtualization the part that deals with the CPU is the most significant and most complex.

We start with the original motivation and a bit of history—dating back to the early 1970s—and proceed with the basics of the computer architecture, understanding what exactly program control means and how it is achieved. We spend a significant amount of time on this topic also because it is at the heart of security: it is through manipulation of program control that major security attacks are effected.

After addressing the architecture and program control, we will selectively summarize the most relevant concepts and developments in operating systems. Fortunately, excellent textbooks exist on the subject, and we delve into it mainly to highlight the key issues and problems in virtualization. (The very entity ...