virtual machine Last modified: Wednesday, April 25, 2007
A self-contained operating environment that behaves as if it is a separate computer. For example, Java applets run in a Java virtual machine (VM) that has no access to the host operating system. This design has two advantages: System Independence: A Java application will run the same in any Java VM, regardless of the hardware and software underlying the system. Security: Because the VM has no contact with the operating system, there is little possibility of a Java program damaging other files or applications. The second advantage, however, has a downside. Because programs running in a VM are separate from the operating system, they cannot take advantage of special operating system features.
•E-mail this definition to a colleague• For internet.com pages about virtual machine . Also check out the following links! Understanding Hardware-Assisted Virtualization  Hardware-assisted virtualization changes the access to the operating system itself. x86 operating systems are designed to have direct access to system resources to run. With software virtualization the VMM emulates the required hardware to the operating system. Webopedia's Quick Reference: Virtualization: All About Hypervisors  As virtualization — or at least talk of it — spreads through the enterprise, the word hypervisor is popping up everywhere. To understand what a hypervisor is, you first have to have a basic understanding of system virtualization. The Java Virtual Machine Specification Description of and link to the online version of the book entitled "The Java Virtual Machine Specification" by Sun's own designers of the Java VM, Tim Lindholm and Frank Yellin. Yahoo!'s parallel virtual machines page Yahoo!'s directory of parallel virtual machines.	Operating Systems Programming Virtualization J2EE Java Jini JIT JNI JVM operating environment virtual virtual machine monitor virtual machine server virtual network computing virtualization Give Us Your Feedback Shopping virtual machine Products Compare Products,Prices and Stores Shop by Category: Software 8 Store Offers Security Systems and Surveillance 0 Store Offers Musical Instruments 2 Store Offers