hypervisor
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- A hypervisor, sometimes referred to as a virtualization manager, is a program that allows multiple operating systems which can include different operating systems or multiple instances of the same operating system, to share a single hardware processor.
Dell - Cite This Source - This Definition - The hypervisor is the software layer that abstracts the hardware from the operating system permitting multiple operating systems to run on the same hardware. The hypervisor runs on the host system allowing virtual machines to run on the host's hardware as well.
Red Hat - Cite This Source - This Definition - A hypervisor, also called virtual machine monitor, is a program that allows running several instances of one or of several different operating systems. The hypervisor is processor-specific. It controls the CPU as well as all hardware resources and provides every operating system instance with the required resources. Depending on the technology, the hypervisor emulates the hardware for every instance or translates the requirements to the CPU.
Stonesoft - Cite This Source - This Definition - the first layer of software installed on a computer system in a bare metal environment, but below other virtualization services such as a virtual machine monitor, that allows multiple, possibly heterogeneous, operating systems to share a single hardware platform. Compare to hosted virtualization.
Versatile Systems - Cite This Source - This Definition - The virtualization software layer managing hardware requests from a guest OS, simulating answers from a real hardware. Used as VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor) synonymous.
virtualization.info - Cite This Source - This Definition - A thin layer of software that generally provides virtual partitioning capabilities which runs directly on hardware, but underneath higher-level virtualization services. Sometimes referred to as a "bare metal" approach.
VMware - Cite This Source - This Definition - An alternative term for VMM, used because it means 'beyond supervisor', since it is responsible for managing multiple 'supervisor' kernels.
Xen.org - Cite This Source - This Definition - BT (Binary Translation), fully virtualized, hardware-independence, hardware virtual machine, isolated, para-virtualization, physical computer, VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor)