Lecture

CPU Virtualization

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In course

CS-522: Principles of computer systems

This advanced graduate course teaches the key design principles underlying successful computer and communication systems, and shows how to solve real problems with ideas, techniques, and algorithms from operating systems, networks, databases, programming l ...

Description

This lecture delves into the concept of CPU virtualization, exploring the core principles of systems such as abstraction, layering, and naming. The instructor discusses the definition of a virtual machine, the importance of matching attributes for virtualization, and the distinction between simulation and virtualization. The lecture also covers the Popek and Goldberg theorem of 1974, which establishes the conditions for constructing a virtual machine monitor. The instructor shares insights on the theoretical background of computer systems, the challenges of sensitive instructions, and the implementation of a virtual machine monitor. Additionally, the lecture touches on the evolution of virtualization technologies, the significance of hardware support for virtualization, and the practical applications of virtual machines in cloud computing.

Instructor

George Candea

George Candea heads the Dependable Systems Lab, where he develops techniques and abstractions for building efficient and trustworthy computer systems. His current work focuses on making performance and energy programmable, i.e., providing first-class abstractions to capture a system’s performance and energy behavior (as interfaces do for functionality) and to use them dependably to design, code, and operate efficient systems.In the recent past, George also served as CEO and later Chief Scientist of Cyberhav

Official source

Related concepts (31)

Virtual machine

In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized hardware, software, or a combination of the two. Virtual machines differ and are organized by their function, shown here: System virtual machines (also called full virtualization VMs) provide a substitute for a real machine. They provide the functionality needed to execute entire operating systems.

Hardware-assisted virtualization

In computing, hardware-assisted virtualization is a platform virtualization approach that enables efficient full virtualization using help from hardware capabilities, primarily from the host processors. A full virtualization is used to emulate a complete hardware environment, or virtual machine, in which an unmodified guest operating system (using the same instruction set as the host machine) effectively executes in complete isolation. Hardware-assisted virtualization was added to x86 processors (Intel VT-x, AMD-V or VIA VT) in 2005, 2006 and 2010 (respectively).

Hypervisor

A hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor, VMM, or virtualizer) is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called a host machine, and each virtual machine is called a guest machine. The hypervisor presents the guest operating systems with a virtual operating platform and manages the execution of the guest operating systems. Unlike an emulator, the guest executes most instructions on the native hardware.

Application virtualization

Application virtualization is a software technology that encapsulates computer programs from the underlying operating system on which they are executed. A fully virtualized application is not installed in the traditional sense, although it is still executed as if it were. The application behaves at runtime like it is directly interfacing with the original operating system and all the resources managed by it, but can be isolated or sandboxed to varying degrees.

OS-level virtualization

OS-level virtualization is an operating system (OS) paradigm in which the kernel allows the existence of multiple isolated user space instances, called containers (LXC, Solaris containers, Docker, Podman), zones (Solaris containers), virtual private servers (OpenVZ), partitions, virtual environments (VEs), virtual kernels (DragonFly BSD), or jails (FreeBSD jail or chroot jail). Such instances may look like real computers from the point of view of programs running in them.

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