Virtual Machine

In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform so that the end user can operate software.
==Definitions==
Specifically, the term virtual machine has several distinct meanings:
===Hardware virtual machine===
The original meaning of virtual machine, sometimes called a hardware virtual machine, is that of a number of discrete identical execution environments on a single computer, each of which runs an operating system. This can allow applications written for one OS to be executed on a machine which runs a different OS, or provide execution "sandboxes" which provide a greater level of isolation between processes than is achieved when running multiple processes on the same instance of an OS. One use is to provide multiple users the illusion of having an entire computer, one that is their "private" machine, isolated from other users, all on a single physical machine. Another advantage is that booting and restarting a virtual machine can be much faster than with a physical machine, since it may be possible to skip tasks such as hardware initialization.
Such software is now often referred to with the terms virtualization and virtual servers. The host software which provides this capability is often referred to as a virtual machine monitor or hypervisor.
===Application virtual machine===
Another meaning of virtual machine is a piece of computer software that isolates the application being used by the user from the computer. 
===Virtual environment===
A virtual environment is another kind of a virtual machine. In fact, it is a virtualized environment for running user-level programs. 
==See Also==
*Virtualization
Category:Concepts & Terms