Unikernel

A unikernel is a computer program statically linked with the operating system code on which it depends. Unikernels are built with a specialized compiler that identifies the operating system services that a program uses and links it with one or more library operating systems that provide them. Such a program requires no separate operating system and can run instead as the guest of a hypervisor.

The unikernel architecture builds on concepts developed by Exokernel and Nemesis in the late 1990s.