The Key Characteristics of the Implementation of Virtualization and Its Usefulness for Computation - Dissertation Example

Virtualization enables the combining and dividing of computing resources using such methodologies as hardware/software partitioning, machine simulation, emulation, time-sharing, and so on (Nanda & Chiueh, N.d.). In short, virtualization provides the necessary support using low-level resources so that the hardware can be used to run several virtual machines (VMs) separate from each other.Some form of virtualization is already present in modern operating systems, notably the virtual memory implementations that allow processes to utilize more memory than is physically present inside the computer.

Similarly, the time-sharing principle is now also common, which allows for multi-tasking. However, the focus in the review is mainly on virtualization in a more complete form using virtual machines.Virtual machines were first developed and used at IBM in the 1960s whereas commercial virtualization has been available only relatively recently. The first virtual machine environment was created on the IBM system/360 model 40 VM (Smith & Nair, 2006: 381). Two other prominent early computers in the history of virtualization were the IBM M44/44X and the Atlas supercomputer (Buytaert et al., 2007). The initial purpose was to enable virtual operating systems to be installed and used on a single piece of hardware.

Thus, it uses existing hardware to emulate another computer. Network cards can also be emulated so as to establish a virtual network.The IBM M44 project, for example, was designed for analyzing and sharing different system concepts together. It involved virtual machines and the use of virtual memory and multi-level programming. The system was implemented at MIT for producing a high-quality timeshare system. The CP-67 and CP-40 were examples of early IBM virtual machines in which the VMM’s were operated on top of the hardware.

It is noticeable that virtualization was very popular when computer hardware used to be expensive.