Virtual machine

A virtual machine (VM) is a program which emulates a particular computer hardware environment using existing resources. A virtual machine runs on top of a hypervisor, which adapts the virtual machine’s operating system interface to the host machine’s interface, translating from one CPU instruction set to another in order to support the virtual operating system.

A virtual machine is a “software computer”. It runs its own operating system and operates independently from other virtual machines which may be running on the same hypervisor.