How They Really Work

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Scott Badman, Instructor

Logical Equivalence of Hardware and Software

Virtual Machine - software acting as hardware

A complete computer created in software that runs as a program on another program.

To the Operating System installed on a Virtual Machine, it is a computer.

Cisco Routers - hardware acting as software

Routers are pieces of equipment that decide where to send each "packet" of data on the Internet.

Routers in the core of the Internet implement the decisions of where to send data in hardware because hardware is faster..

On Home Routers and Small Business Routers, the same decisions are implemented by normal software programs.