hypervisor

A firmware or software system that provides a virtual machine and allows it to operate directly on underlying hardware (instead of via emulation), but within specified constraints.

Noun

  1. A firmware or software system that provides a virtual machine and allows it to operate directly on underlying hardware (instead of via emulation), but within specified constraints.
    • The hypervisor is the component that translates the virtual machines into the underlying hardware. There are two types of hypervisors: The type 1 hypervisor runs directly on the host hardware; the type 2 or hosted...

    Synonyms: virtual machine monitor

Origin

Blend of hyper- + supervisor.

Forms

hypervisors

Derived

storage hypervisor