Virtual Machines

Question 1

What is a virtual machine?

Answer 1

A program which has the same functionality as a physical computer

Question 2

List three examples of virtual machines:

Answer 2

Emulators, Server Technology and Java

Question 3

How do emulators work?

Answer 3

• Make programs think that they are running on their native hardware
• Also used for game development so console games can be developed on PCs

Question 4

How does modern server technology use virtual machines?

Answer 4

• A small number of physical servers but have multiple virtual servers running on top for specific tasks, this allows the load to be balanced between the physical servers.
• If one server goes down or encounters an error others can easily pick up the extra load

Question 5

How does Java use virtual machines?

Answer 5

• Runs on many platforms

* Compilers its source code into bytecode which can be interpreted into machine code by each device