The Architecture of Bare-Metal Real-Time Microhypervisor and Automated Measurement of Time Response
Keywords:
Bare Metal Software, Microhypervisor, Real-Time Systems, Safety-Critical Systems, Symmetric Multiprocessing, Virtual Machines.Abstract
Purpose: Hypervisors and virtual machines have become popular in the recent decade due to their indisputable advantages. But there
is a reverse side of this achievement especially for industrial companies which are engaged into development of safety-critical systems.
Software becomes too complicated to be compatible with all possible versions and configurations of hardware. As a result it is difficult
to certify this software for its compliance with safety standards such as IEC 61508. The purpose of the research is to develop a hardwaredependent bare-metal hypervisor which can lunch 3 guest operating systems. Results: There has been developed a real-time hypervisor with microkernel architecture which uses VT-d technology to pass through devices to guest operating systems and VT-x technology to virtualize a processor. There has been proven a possibility to develop a real-time microhypervisor for a given hardware platform with
a source code comprising less than 10000 lines. There has been developed and checked a method and software/hardware for testing real-time characteristics of software. Practical relevance: The given method to develop a hypervisor makes it possible to work out a baremetal
hardware specific real-time portative microhypervisor in a short time period employing a small team of developers. The proposed
method for testing real-time characteristics allows conducting this process automatically.