Virtual Machines Conceptually, a computer system is made up of layers. The hardware is the lowest level in all such systems.

The kernel running at the next level uses the hardware instructions to create a set of system calls for use by outer layers. The system programs above the kernel are therefore able to use either system calls or hardware instructions, and in some ways these programs do not differentiate between these two. Thus, although they are accessed differently, they both provide functionality that the program can use to create even more advanced functions. System programs, in turn, treat the hardware and the system calls as though they were both at the same level. Some systems carry this scheme a step further by allowing the system programs to be called easily by the application programs. As before, although the system programs are at a level higher than that of the other routines, the application programs may view everything under them in the hierarchy as though the latter were part of the machine itself. This layered approach is

taken to its logical conclusion in the concept of a virtual machine. The VM operating system for IBM systems is the best example of the virtual-machine concept, because IBM pioneered the work in this area. By using CPU scheduling (Chapter 6) and virtualmemory techniques (Chapter lo), an operating system can create the illusion that a process has its own processor with its own (virtual) memory. Of course, normally, the process has additional features, such as system calls and a file system, that are not provided by the bare hardware. The virtual-machine approach, on the other hand, does not provide any additional functionality, but rather provides an interface that is identical to the underlying bare hardware. Each process is provided with a (virtual) copy of the underlying computer (Figure 3.11). The physical computer shares resources to create the virtual machines. CPU scheduling can share out the CPU to create the appearance that users have their own processors. Spooling and a file system can provide virtual card readers and

virtual line printers. A normal user time-sharing terminal provides the function of the virtual-machine operator's console.

A major difficulty with the virtual-machine approach involves disk sys- I tems. Suppose that the physical machine has three disk drives but wants to support seven virtual machines. Clearly, it cannot allocate a disk drive to each 1 virtual machine. Remember that the virtual-machine software itself will need substantial disk space to provide virtual memory. The solution is to provide I I virtual disks, which are identical in all respects except size-termed minidisks in IBM's VM operating system. The system implements each minidisk by allo- I cating as many tracks on the physical disks as the minidisk needs. Obviously, the sum of the sizes of all minidisks must be smaller than the size of the physical disk space available. Users thus are given their own virtual machines. They can then run any of

the operating systems or software packages that are available on the underlying machine. For the IBM VM system, a user normally runs CMS-a single-user interactive operating system. The virtual-machine software is concerned with multiprogramming multiple virtual machines onto a physical machine, but it does not need to consider any user-support software. This arrangement may provide a useful partitioning into two smaller pieces of the problem of designing a multiuser interactive system.