1. A measuring instrument comprising: at least one processor having at least one processor internal resource; at least one hardware component external to the processor; at least one storage component; firmware stored in the storage component and accessible by the processor, the firmware comprising: at least one application; a virtualized hardware system configured to determine one or more differences between the at least one application of the firmware and one or more of the at least one processor internal resource and the at least one hardware component external to the processor, the one or more differences including at least parameters associated with the at least one application, wherein the virtualized hardware system includes routines that emulate, based on the one or more determined differences, the at least one processor internal resource, and wherein the virtualized hardware system is configured to change, based on the one or more determined differences, at least one of the following: the at least one hardware component external to the processor and the at least one processor internal resource to provide the at least one application with an access to the at least one processor internal resource and the at least one hardware component external to the processor; and at least one application programming interface between the application and the virtualized hardware system.