Abstract:

With the renaissance of virtualization technology in the recent decade it becomes a hot focus of researchers and companies. The article reviews the development of virtualization technologies from the viewpoint of operating system. Firstly it analyses the connotations of virtualization and operating system and argues the debate between them. It holds that the virtualization and operating system are the double sides of the same sword and they should benefit from each other. The article analyses the characteristics of several key technologies of virtualization and operating system, such as dynamic binary translation, namespace virtualization, resource management, runtime context’s save and restore mechanism, system security and trustiness enhancement. Moreover, it investigates the trend of integrating virtualization and operating systems. It is true that virtualization’s development stimulates the revolution of operating systems.

Key words: virtualization;operating system;Microkernel