Virtual Machine (VM)

A Virtual Machine is the virtualization/emulation of a computer system including the operating system and functioning hardware (RAM and hard drive assets) assigned by the host computer. Virtual machines differ and are organized by their function. These include: * System Virtual Machines (also termed full virtualization VMs) provide a substitute for a real machine. They provide the functionality needed to execute entire operating systems. A hypervisor uses native execution to share and manage hardware, allowing for multiple environments which are isolated from one another, yet exist on the same physical machine. Modern hypervisors use hardware-assisted virtualization, virtualization-specific hardware, primarily from the host CPUs. * Process Virtual Machines are designed to execute computer programs in a platform-independent environment.