Virtualization Extensions

As the complexity of software increases, the requirement for multiple software environments to be available on the same physical processor increases simultaneously. Software applications that require separation for reasons of isolation, robustness or differing real-time characteristics need a virtual processor exhibiting the required functionality.

To provide virtual processors in an energy-efficient manner requires a combination of hardware acceleration and efficient software hypervisors. The ARM Architecture Virtualization Extension standardizes the architecture for implementation of the hardware acceleration in ARM application processor cores, while high performance hypervisors from the world’s leading virtualization companies provide the software component upon which to build effective software combinations.

Cloud computing and other data or content oriented solutions increase the demands on the physical memory system from each virtual machine. The large physical address extensions provide a second level of MMU translation table so that each 32-bit virtual memory address mapped is within a 40-bit physical memory range. This allows systems to allocate sufficient physical memory to each virtual machine for to maintain efficient throughput when total demands on memory exceed the range of 32-bit addressing.