VM's BIOS and Drivers

Device Driver

• Operating systems need a way to communicate with a wide range of devices, each with different models and manufacturers. This is why we need device drivers, a driver is a piece of software, that is practically a translator. It allows the operating system to communicate with the device so that it will actually work

BIOS

• Basic input/output system.
• When a computer is first turned on it looks to the BIOS to get it set up.
• BIOS was originally stored on ROM however now is usually stored on flash memory so it can be updated

Virtual Machines

• A virtual machine is a program with the same functionality as a physical computer.
• The advantage of using VM's are that they can be backed up and duplicated and more than one can be run at one time on a physical machine.
• A common use of VM'S is to run operating systems within another operating system. This may be because a program is needed that will not run on the host operating systems or so that programs can be tested when being developed.