Secure virtualisation for NXP i.MX 8 and 8X processors protects critical systems
Green Hills Software has announced availability of its Integrity Multivisor secure virtualisation for NXP Semiconductors’ i.MX 8 and 8X applications processors. Using the certified separation architecture of the Integrity real-time operating system (RTOS) and its Multivisor secure virtualisation technology, manufacturers of critical automotive and industrial systems can, for the first time, run consumer operating systems in secure partitions alongside critical software applications on the same i.MX 8 processor, says Green Hills.
Manufacturers can consolidate Linux, Android and AUTOSAR with critical software on the same i.MX 8-based platform to design a scalable, mixed-criticality platform and with low, mid and high-end feature sets. The consolidation reduces hardware costs and simplifies software complexity, adds Green Hills.
Integrity and Integrity Multivisor are integrated with Green Hills Software’s advanced ASIL D/SIL 4 qualified development tools featuring the industry-leading C/C++ compilers, Multi integrated development environment, TimeMachine backward execution trace debugger, and MISRA C Adherence Checker. Software developers can use advanced tools to extract maximum performance from the i.MX 8 processors and reduce the time and cost to debug and test software. For example, the Multi debugger provides the programmer a time-synchronised and unified view and control of the many execution levels in a consolidated Linux system: Linux applications, Linux kernel and drivers, real-time applications, RTOS kernel and virtual machine monitor. In contrast, says Green Hills, competing debuggers require a patchwork of different and disconnected debugging setups from several different vendors.
The Integrity RTOS and Multivisor platform for NXP i.MX 8 and 8X families of applications processors includes support for secure virtualisation and separation technology. This allows ISO 26262 and IEC 61508-certified applications to co-exist with general-purpose code or guest operating systems. It also allows accelerated hardware virtualisation leveraging the Arm architecture virtualisation extension.
It also supports accelerated 3D graphics using i.MX 8 graphics processing unit (GPU), and the capability to share the GPU between the host RTOS and multiple guest operating systems, while ensuring the RTOS graphics applications have priority for meeting functional safety requirements.
Integrity and its set of integrated software and hardware tools for the NXP i.MX 8 and 8X families are used by customers today. Integrity Multivisor for the i.MX 8 and 8X is available today to early access customers.
