Multicore Association Creates Working Group to Address Virtualization for Embedded Multicore Platforms

The Multicore Association(TM), a global non-profit organization focused on developing standards that help speed time to market for products that involve multicore implementations, has announced the formation of the "Multicore Virtualization" Working Group. The group will explore standards-based mechanisms that support services such as efficient inter-virtual machine communication, distributed I/O, virtual machine management, and migration and in-service upgrade of virtual machines.

The working group will also explore developing standardized interfaces that provide users of embedded virtualization solutions with increased portability and interoperability of applications and middleware between different virtualization vendors.

"Our customers have to deal with a 100-fold traffic increase in telecommunications networks, while revenues remain flat. That is one of the reasons why we are investing in multicore technology. In order to make efficient use of this technology, we are actively participating in Multicore Association and its Virtualization Workgroup, says Surender Kumar from Nokia Siemens Networks and the chair of the Virtualization Workgroup. "We see great value in the development of standards, open interfaces and openness in general. This drives innovation and supports us in our effort to leverage standards based hardware and software components into our own products, enabling us to focus our own R&D for the benefit of our customers."

"Due to the increasing popularity of embedded virtualization technology, the efforts of this working group will benefit many embedded application areas such as the networking infrastructure, mobile handsets, consumer electronics, industrial automation, and automotive markets," noted Markus Levy, president of the Multicore Association. "Furthermore, in line with the other working groups of the MCA, the Multicore Virtualization working group will ultimately make the fruits of their labor publicly available to ensure unconstrained industry-wide adoption."

Participating companies currently include Freescale, Nokia Siemens Networks, VirtualLogix, Samsung and WindRiver. This new working group is open to all Multicore Association members.

About The Multicore Association

The Multicore Association provides a neutral forum for vendors who are interested in, working with, and/or proliferating multicore-related products, including processors, infrastructure, devices, software, and applications. The consortium has made available its Multicore Communications API (MCAPI) specification through its website. Currently, the organization is set up with three working groups: Multicore Virtualization, Multicore Resource Management, and Multicore Programming Practices (MPP). Members include CAPS entreprise, Carnegie Mellon University, Codeplay, CriticalBlue, Enea, eSOL, Freescale Semiconductor, IMEC, LSI, Mentor Graphics, MIPS Technologies, National Instruments, NEC Electronics America, Nokia Siemens Networks, Plurality, PolyCore Software, QNX, Samsung Electronics, Texas Instruments, Tilera, University of Utah, VirtualLogix, Virtutech, VMware, and Wind River. Further information is available at www.multicore-association.org.