IBM's built-in virtualization layer for Power Systems hardware, the hypervisor that creates and manages LPARs.
PowerVM is IBM's virtualization technology for Power Systems servers, the hypervisor layer that creates, manages, and allocates resources to LPARs (logical partitions) on the same physical machine. It handles processor and memory sharing between partitions, virtual networking and storage between LPARs, and live partition mobility on supported configurations.
PowerVM is specific to IBM Power Systems hardware, distinct from general-purpose hypervisors like VMware or Hyper-V used on x86 servers. It's a foundational reason IBM i, AIX, and Linux workloads can share one physical Power server efficiently.