OS virtualizes guest operating systems
By Robert Cravotta -- EDN, December 7, 2004
The Integrity PC RTOS from Green Hills Software enables developers to integrate into their high-security and high-reliability systems legacy software that executes under other operating systems. Integrity PC can partition a system into virtual instances, each of which can host, as a guest, its own operating system, including Linux. Integrity PC is an extension of the Integrity RTOS that allows guest operating systems and their applications to operate as Integrity user-mode applications and by prohibiting these operating systems and applications from circumventing the protections that the Integrity RTOS is enforcing. This enforcement extends to include monitoring all I/O operations, including network communications. Because the native Integrity partition performs the monitoring function, guest software cannot subvert or disable it.
The Integrity RTOS isolates each virtual instance by providing each partition with its own virtual addressing space with hardware protection. It guarantees resource availability, such as memory- and processor-execution resources, to each partition, so that no software can fully exhaust or consume the scheduled memory or time resources of other partitions. Integrity PC supports simultaneous use of system interfaces, including multiple instances of the same or different operating systems in different partitions. Integrity is certified to the Posix 1003.1-2003 system-interfaces product standard. Integrity PC supports the Linux operating system operating on PowerPC 4xx processors and is available today. Development licenses for the royalty-free Integrity RTOS begin at $15,000.
Green Hills Software, 1-805-965-6044, www.ghs.com.
