A virtual machine is used to emulate a new computer system.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2022). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [6] Two marks each benefit description max 4 New system can be tried on different virtual hardware (1) without need to purchase the hardware (1) Easier to recover if software emulating the new computer causes system crash (1) as VM provides protection to other software (1) Emulate programs for the new computer system that are not compatible with the host computer / operating system (1) by using the guest operating system on the old computer (1) More than one new computer system can be emulated (1) this allows multiple operating systems to coexist on a single computer(1) Two marks each limitation description max 2 from: Virtual machines may not be able to emulate the new hardware (1) because this hardware may have been developed since the virtual machine was developed (1) Using virtual machine means execution of extra code // A virtual machine might not be as efficient // resources e.g. memory or processor time are shared (1) processing time increased // performance degrades (1) Use of a virtual machine increases the maintenance overheads (1) because both host system and the virtual machine must be maintained (1)