MIPS virtualization brings secure isolation to deeply embedded applications

Brings Enhanced Design Productivity for TowerJazz's Advanced Analog/Mixed-Signal Process Technology

By Alex Voica, Jul. 18, 2016 – 

Embedded computing is currently enjoying a rebirth thanks to a technology called virtualization.

It started when Imagination became the first semiconductor IP company to introduce virtualization to microcontroller-type CPUs and then demonstrated how developers could take advantage of this feature by using a lightweight hypervisor optimized for MIPS M-class MCUs.

We then showed how the same virtualization technology can be used to implement better security for routers and other connected devices running Linux-based operating systems on high-end MIPS Warrior CPUs.

Today I'd like to restate why virtualization is useful for microcontrollers by presenting a new demonstration running on our MIPS M-class CPUs. In the diagram below, we have a PIC32MZ EF MCU from Microchip Technology running the type of bare-metal applications you'd expect a high-performance microcontroller to handle.

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