Virtualization: The CPU Is the Easy Part

What happens when a virtual machine runs your code: most instructions run straight on the processor, and the interesting engineering lives where the host has to step in. One store instruction, followed from an emulated network card to a real one, and what the same pattern did to memory, clocks, and Kubernetes.

September 27, 2026 · 15 min · Explainer, kept up to date · Ademar Reis