Wiktionary
n. 1 (context computing English) A software emulation of a computer that runs in an isolated partition of a real computer. 2 (context computing English) A computer system that is implemented in software rather than hardware and that runs bytecode.
Wikipedia
In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is an emulation of a given computer system. Virtual machines operate based on the computer architecture and functions of a real or hypothetical computer, and their implementations may involve specialized hardware, software, or a combination.
There are different kinds of virtual machines, each with different functions. System virtual machines (also termed full virtualization VMs) provide a complete substitute for the targeted real machine and a level of function needed to execute a full operating system. A hypervisor uses native execution to share and manage hardware, allowing multiple different environments, isolated from each other, to be executed on the same physical machine. Modern hypervisors use hardware-assisted virtualization, which provides efficient and full virtualization by using virtualization-specific hardware capabilities, primarily from the host CPUs. Process virtual machines are designed to execute one computer program by providing an abstracted and platform-independent program execution environment.
Some virtual machines, such as QEMU, are designed to also emulate different architectures and allow execution of software applications and operating systems written for another CPU or architecture. Operating-system-level virtualization allows the resources of a computer to be partitioned via the kernel's support for multiple isolated user space instances, which are usually called containers and may look and feel like real machines to the end users.
Usage examples of "virtual machine".
Camel's Eye had run all three interactives (on a doubly quarantined virtual machine a simulation of a computer running a simulation of a computer) and tried to fool them into thinking that they were making their pitch to the real Maria Deluca.
Presently a braid of processes running on an abstract virtual machine asks him a question that cannot be encoded in any human grammar.
Camel's Eye had run all three interactives (on a doubly quarantined virtual machine- a simulation of a computer running a simulation of a computer) and tried to fool them into thinking that they were making their pitch to the real Maria Deluca.
But the womb was a virtual machine designed to execute the seed's instructions, and a dozen more layers of software led down to the polis itself, a lattice of flickering molecular switches.
Behind his feline eyes, a braid of processes running on an abstract virtual machine asks him a question that cannot be encoded in any human grammar.
Both times it had been the same thing: a kind of telepathic bullhorn-a virtual machine with which to communicate with another (and nonhuman) telepath, over vast distances.