Chapter 14: Virtualization and Containers
Vol 3: Computer Core Expedition · Chapter 14
Metadata Card
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Hypervisor, Container, VM, CPU/Memory/I/O Virtualization |
Your Progress
"One physical machine can run multiple operating systems simultaneously through virtualization. Containers take a different approach — sharing the host OS kernel while isolating processes."
Encounter 1: Hypervisor Types
- Type 1 (Bare-metal): Runs directly on hardware (VMware ESXi, Xen, KVM)
- Type 2 (Hosted): Runs on a host OS (VirtualBox, VMware Workstation)
Encounter 2: Containers vs VMs
| VM | Container | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Each VM has its own OS | Shares host OS kernel |
| Boot time | Minutes | Seconds |
| Isolation | Strong (hardware-backed) | Process-level (namespaces) |
| Resource overhead | High (duplicate OS) | Low |
| Image size | GB | MB |
Encounter 3: Docker
Docker uses Linux namespaces (process isolation) and cgroups (resource limits) to create lightweight, reproducible environments.
Verification Checklist
- [ ] Can explain the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors
- [ ] Can compare containers vs VMs
- [ ] Can describe the key technologies behind Docker (namespaces, cgroups)
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Chapter 15: CPU Pipeline