Trango is shipping virtualization technology targeting SoC (system-on-chip) designers creating MIPS, ARM, and PPC chips for secure set-top boxes, mobile phones, nework equipment, and certified systems. The Trango hypervisor comprises a 20KB microkernel that allows two or more guest OSes to run in CPU user mode on a single core.

Yesterday, we published a news item briefly introducing Trango's hypervisor product. Today, we're pleased to follow up with further specific details, based on an exchange with Peter Coulumbeau, Trango's business development manager. Readers may wish to review our previous story as background.

According to Coulombeau, the Trango hypervisor takes a “fundamentally secure” approach to virtualization, because guest OSes run in CPU user mode. In that regard, the technology most closely resembles ARM's TrustZone, he says, while costing less.

“Jaluna does not at all provide virtual machine isolation,” adds Coulombeau. “All OS kernels shares the CPU kernel mode, which mean no isolation and security between the virtual machines. From our customers' point of view, Trango is considered a cross-platform, powerful, and less expensive alternative to TrustZone, rather than a competitor to Jaluna.”

ARM launched its TrustZone architecture extension in May of 2003, followed by an API in September of this year.

Another comparison is to the open source XEN project. “Trango could be seen as a real-time and embedded XEN,” Coulombeau suggests.

Jaluna officials, meanwhile, have likened that company's OSware product to an embedded VMware.

Other available virtualization technologies include IBM hypervisors, VMware, Virtual PC, L4, as well as virtualization hardware support technologies like Intel VT, AMD Pacifica, and others.

Coulombeau says that Trango offers two capabilities especially interesting to phone chip makers. First of all, it provides a secure, generic architecture for MIPS32, MIPS64, ARM9, and ARM11 (without TrustZone). Secondly, it can isolate an RTOS running a modem software stack from the multimedia OS (Linux, Symbian, or Windows CE), and additionally isolate security components such as DRM or secure update environments.

Coulombeau says that most potential Trango customers — including “one big European mobile platform manufacturer” — have wanted to evaluate Linux on the hypervisor. He expects products that use Trango to begin appearing in early 2006.

Trango is demonstrating five OSes — including two Linux instances — running on a single ARM9 processor, at the ARM Symposium in Paris this week. The Trango hypervisor is shipping now on ARM and MIPS, with PowerPC availability expected in early 2006.

 
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