Wind River Hypervisor
Wind River Hypervisor brings a new level of flexibility to the development of embedded devices. It opens up new opportunities for cost savings through hardware consolidation; it allows developers to leverage multiple operating systems in a single device so they can expand and enhance device functionality; it facilitates the adoption of multicore processors by increasing reliability and reducing risk; and it provides the new software configuration options required to architect next-generation embedded devices.
An integral part of Wind River's Multicore Software Solution, Wind River Hypervisor focuses on core real-time values such as high performance, small footprint, determinism, low latency, and high reliability. It is highly optimized for and integrated with VxWorks and Wind River Linux, and it supports other operating systems and a broad range of processor architectures.
For developers who are building highly differentiated embedded devices, Wind River Hypervisor offers compelling new capabilities. Now you can build more functionality into smaller form factors, build more scalable and reliable multicore systems, and consolidate with confidence—with all the efficiencies of a unified development environment and a single-vendor solution.
Benefits
Consolidation: Systems that require multiple processors are expensive and inefficient in terms of hardware costs and power consumption. With Wind River Hypervisor, you can consolidate existing systems to a single or multicore solution, so you can pack more features and functions into smaller form factors, saving money while increasing efficiency.
Innovation and differentiation: It can be difficult to create highly differentiated devices when development is constrained to one operating system. Wind River Hypervisor allows multiple operating systems to coexist and cooperate on the same device, enabling developers to introduce a new operating system or newer OS versions while leveraging existing software assets.
Efficient adoption of multicore: Multicore processors promise increased performance and reduced power consumption; however, adapting software developed for single processors to run on multicore processors can be a daunting task. Using Wind River Hypervisor in a supervised AMP configuration makes systems easier to configure, reduces complexity by increasing protection between cores, and provides a more scalable and reliable solution.
Features
Processors: Supports single and multicore processors based on Intel and PowerPC architectures (other processors also available)
Operating systems: Integrates with VxWorks and Wind River Linux; supports other operating systems and executives
Virtual board interface: Provides an interface to port onto the Hypervisor operating systems or applications that do not require an operating system
Protection: Enables devices to be assigned to virtual boards; provides device and memory protection between virtual boards
Configuration: Uses convenient XML-based system configuration; configuration changes do not require rebuilding guest operating systems or applications
Build: Provides system projects for building entire multi-OS systems from Wind River Workbench
Debugging: Debugs multiple virtual boards via one physical Ethernet connection; agent-based debugging of VxWorks and Wind River Linux applications
Core scheduling: Provides a priority-based scheduler; partitioned and custom schedulers can be supported
Communication: Provides MIPC (multicore/multi-OS interprocess communication), a message-passing protocol designed for communication between cores and/or virtual boards; uses a socketlike API and shared memory as a fast, efficient ("zero-copy") communications medium between operating systems
Virtual devices: Provides virtualized access to devices such as serial ports and network cards
Virtual board management: Enables start, stop, and reload/restart of guest operating systems
On-chip debugging: Debugs either a single guest or an entire system using Wind River Workbench On-Chip Debugging
