hypervisor

English

Etymology

Blend of hyper- +‎ supervisor.

Noun

hypervisor (plural hypervisors)

1. (computing) 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.

   Synonym: virtual machine monitor

   • 2011, Edward Whalen, Oracle VM Implementation and Administration Guide, McGraw Hill Professional, →ISBN, page 17:

     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 hypervisor runs in software.

Derived terms

• storage hypervisor

Translations

system that provides a virtual machine

• Finnish: hypervisor, virtuaalikonemonitori
• German: Hypervisor m
• Romanian: hipervizor n

Further reading

• hypervisor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia