Wind River Adds Support for Microsoft Windows XP to Its Embedded Virtualization Offering

Wind River Hypervisor was developed from the ground up to support real-time system requirements and virtualization on single and multi-core processors, and leverages Wind River's deep expertise in advanced partitioning and safety and security critical systems from the aerospace and defense and industrial and medical sectors. With the addition of Windows XP as a guest operating system, device and systems manufacturers serving the industrial and medical market segments can integrate Windows XP alongside real-time operating systems into their projects to deliver a broader set of capabilities and develop innovative solutions to differentiate them from the competition. Examples include using Windows XP to create a graphical user interface for patient monitoring consoles or industrial control platforms while also implementing an RTOS to manage sensors and control with real-time performance, determinism and high reliability, both on the same physical single- or multi-core chip.

Wind River is seeing significant growth in embedded virtualization adoption, among device and systems manufacturers, said Cory Bialowas, senior director of product management for multi-core and virtualization at Wind River. Embedded virtualization creates compelling new opportunities for embedded designers, paving the way for significant cost savings through consolidation, additional feature content and greater performance when developing advanced single or multi-core systems. With the addition of Windows XP support, we expect accelerated adoption of embedded virtualization, especially in industrial and medical markets, where rich user interfaces alongside a real-time operating system are required.

According to ARC Research Director Larry O’Brien, Virtualization is finding many adherents in the world of automation today because it has great potential to reduce total cost of ownership. What Wind River is doing with embedded virtualization, however, creates some unique opportunities that exist beyond the current offerings of virtualizing desktop applications. Wind River is bringing the world of virtualization into a realm where it can exist side by side with real-time control applications. In many ways, this is unexplored territory with many new possibilities to generate business value.

With a long track record of delivering proven multi-core and embedded virtualization technologies, Wind River’s solutions help customers reduce the risk and costs associated with developing the complex embedded systems of tomorrow. Wind River Hypervisor allows customers to adopt multi-core processors using embedded virtualization technology with reduced risk and time-to-market. To help customers manage the complexities that arise with multi-core software development, Wind River offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to effectively develop, test and debug software and simulate systems in complex multi-core environments.