Full-virtualization on MIPS-based MPSOCs embedded platforms with real-time support

Virtualization has emerged also as a feasible technique for Embedded Systems, as it provides more secure platforms, improves software design quality and reduces costs. However, real-time and memory constraints requires the development of different techniques from that widely applied to enterprise computing. Still, embedded processors area and power consumption constraints has limited the large adoption of hardware support for full-virtualization. In this paper we present an embedded hypervisor designed to provide full-virtualization and real-time execution of applications. The hypervisor is running on a lightweight MIPS-based MPSOC platform improved to provide hardware-based virtualization. Discussions about key aspects of the multiprocessor hypervisor, such scheduling policies, real-time and overall overhead are presented.