want a driver to work without a device

[mohi608]

Hello ,
I am not sure whether this is a write forum to post this questiion if not please suggest me the right one ..

I am working on a project where i have to make the existing driver (linux c based) to be run on that device , in order to verify its functionality .
AFAIK i have figured out two ways -
- make a customised kernel , do some module level programming(you could call that application also) which would working on that particular driver
then i need a way where i could make this driver work without hardware .. then i could select which kernel to boot from my boot loader
- make a hypervisor like KVM ,etc run the customised kernel on it and do the sbove same ...

which would be a safer appoarch where chances of kernel crashing is low ( i am not a device level expert)
or is there any other method where i could write an application on this driver and make it run on a virtualised hardware ..
Note- MY OS CENTOS 6.5 does have that driver as it is only available in kernel 3.14

Thanks