Describing a Hypervisor
The original virtual machine monitor (VMM) was created to solve a specific problem, but VMMs have evolved into something quite different. The term virtual machine manager has fallen out of favor and has been replaced with the term hypervisor. Today’s hypervisors allow us to make better use of the ever-faster processors that regularly appear in the commercial market and more efficient use of the larger and denser memory offerings that come along with those newer processors. The hypervisor is a layer of software that resides below the virtual machines and above the hardware. Figure 2.1 illustrates where the hypervisor resides.
FIGURE 2.1 Where the hypervisor resides
Without a hypervisor, an operating system communicates ...
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