bare metal

Noun

bare metal (uncountable)

1. A runtime environment where little to no abstraction is available: usually employing a low-level programming language, without access to any operating system facilities, and interfacing hardware directly.
   • Real programmers don't write applications programs; they program right down to the bare metal. Applications programming is for wimps who can't do systems programming.1987, “The Real Programmer's Handbook”, in U-M Computing News, volume 2, UM Libraries, page 7
   • After all, this isn't PC Week, or another magazine that primarily covers the happenings of the PC world. This is Embedded Systems Programming, where we often program right down to the bare metal like Real Programmers, unlike those sissy PC guys (insert the sound of a hairy chest being thumped here).1997, Embedded Systems Programming, Miller Freeman Publications, page 118

   Synonyms:

   bare hardware, bare machine

2. Physical hardware, as opposed to virtualised.
   • A hypervisor is a thin, guest OS—independent Virtualization layer that is loaded onto bare metal, which interacts with the hardware directly and creates virtual machines in which operating systems, either enlightened or not, can run.2007, Barb Goldworm, Anne Skamarock, Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 98
   • In 1998 virtualization was "rediscovered" for the x86 platform by VMWare, but due to instruction translation the approach taken was slow when compared to bare metal performance.2009, Latifa Boursas, Mark Carlson, Wolfgang Hommel, Michelle Sibilla, Kes Wold, Systems and Virtualization Management: Standards and New Technologies, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page...

   Synonyms:

   bare hardware

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bare, metal.
   • bare-metal stent