Patent ID: 7376949
Filing Date: 2008-05-20
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. In a computer including hardware, a virtual machine monitor, and first and second operating system instances, a method comprising: using the virtual machine monitor (VMM) to expose the first operating system instance to a first hardware partition of the hardware and prevent the first operating system instance from discovering a second hardware partition of the hardware; using the virtual machine monitor to expose the second operating system instance to the second hardware partition and prevent the second operating system instance from discovering the first hardware partition; and using the virtual machine monitor to share at least some of the hardware among the first and second operating system instances that are booted on the VMM after the hardware is configured, wherein the VMM configures the hardware so accesses to requested addresses by the first OS trap to the VMM. the traps occurring during resource discovery of memory installed and input/output (I/O) devices present by a booting operating system (OS) instance consisting one of the first or second OS instances, and the VMM responds to a trap by misinforming the booting OS instance about the existence of hardware not in its partition.