Which term describes the software layer that abstracts hardware resources and allocates them to virtual machines?

Which term describes the software layer that abstracts hardware resources and allocates them to virtual machines?

• A. Hypervisor
• B. BIOS
• C. Device Driver
• D. Operating System

Answer: (A)

The term describes a software layer that sits between physical hardware and the virtual machines, presenting each VM with its own virtual hardware and managing access to CPU, memory, storage, and I/O. This layer is the hypervisor. It handles isolation and efficient sharing of hardware resources so multiple VMs can run simultaneously on the same physical machine. Type 1 hypervisors run directly on hardware, while Type 2 run atop a host operating system. BiOS is firmware that initializes hardware during boot and isn’t responsible for distributing resources to virtual machines. A device driver controls a specific piece of hardware from an operating system, not the global abstraction and allocation to multiple VMs. An operating system manages resources for programs on a single system; it may host virtual machines in some setups, but it isn’t the dedicated virtualization layer that abstracts hardware for multiple VMs.

The term describes a software layer that sits between physical hardware and the virtual machines, presenting each VM with its own virtual hardware and managing access to CPU, memory, storage, and I/O. This layer is the hypervisor. It handles isolation and efficient sharing of hardware resources so multiple VMs can run simultaneously on the same physical machine. Type 1 hypervisors run directly on hardware, while Type 2 run atop a host operating system.

BiOS is firmware that initializes hardware during boot and isn’t responsible for distributing resources to virtual machines. A device driver controls a specific piece of hardware from an operating system, not the global abstraction and allocation to multiple VMs. An operating system manages resources for programs on a single system; it may host virtual machines in some setups, but it isn’t the dedicated virtualization layer that abstracts hardware for multiple VMs.