EEMBC to Develop Hypervisor Benchmark Suite for Embedded Systems

EEMBC (Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium) announced that it has formed a workgroup to develop a new hypervisor benchmark suite that will measure the contribution of hypervisors, also known as virtual machine managers, to performance, energy consumption, and code size in a wide range of embedded systems.

Markus Levy, president of EEMBC, stated:

Until fairly recently, hypervisors were common only in servers… In embedded systems, where they are coming to be used more and more widely, hypervisors allow the use of a high-level OS interface for application programming, such as Linux or Microsoft Windows, while at the same time maintaining traditional real-time OS (RTOS) APIs. Therefore, hypervisors for embedded use must be real-time capable, as well as resource-miserly. These criteria make it important to establish industry-standard benchmarks that analyze these metrics…

A hypervisor is a program that allows multiple operating systems or execution environments to run simultaneously on a single embedded processor. A hypervisor guarantees complete isolation between the virtual machines (VMs) running above it, as well as between itself and those same VMs. In a multicore environment, a hypervisor can also distribute the operating systems and applications across multiple cores. The benefits of using a hypervisor as a virtualization platform include better load balancing and lower power consumption, by virtue of migrating processes dynamically to underutilized cores, and greater uptime through background firmware updates and redundant OS imaging.

The EEMBC effort is being headed up by Frank Altschuler, director of marketing for TRANGO Virtual Processors. Frank Altschuler said:

Virtualization platforms such as hypervisors have enormous potential in the embedded industry… The rapid and widespread adoption of this technology, however, will hinge on the industry’s ability to inspire confidence in its customers. The availability of a solid and widely accepted benchmark suite is a key part of this task. EEMBC’s hypervisor benchmarks will give customers the knowledge and insight they need to take full advantage of the best practices in the industry…

EEMBC welcomes inquiries from companies that are interested in contributing to the development of its hypervisor benchmarks by becoming a member of the EEMBC Board of Directors or its hypervisor subcommittee.

About EEMBC
EEMBC, the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, develops and certifies real-world benchmarks and benchmark scores to help designers select the right embedded processors for their systems. Every processor submitted for EEMBC benchmarking is tested for parameters representing different workloads and capabilities in communications, networking, consumer, office automation, automotive/industrial, embedded Java, and network storage-related applications. With members including leading semiconductor, intellectual property, and compiler companies, EEMBC establishes benchmark standards and provides certified benchmarking results through the EEMBC Technology Center.

EEMBC members include Altera, AMD, Analog Devices, ARC International, ARM, Broadcom, Cavium Networks, CEVA, Code Sourcery, Cypress Semiconductor, esmertec, Faraday, Freescale Semiconductor, Fujitsu Microelectronics, Green Hills Software, Huawei Technologies Co, IAR Systems AB, IBM, Imagination Technologies, Improv Systems, Infineon Technologies, Intel, LSI, Marvell Semiconductor, Matsushita Electric Industrial, MediaTek, Mentor Graphics, Microchip Technology, MIPS Technologies, National Instruments, NEC Electronics, Nokia, Nvidia, NXP Semiconductors, Oki Electric Industry Co, PA Semi, Qualcomm, Realtek Semiconductor, Red Hat, Renesas Technology, RMI, Sony Computer Entertainment, ST Microelectronics, Sun Microsystems, Tensilica, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Trango Virtual Processors, VIA Technologies, and Wind River Systems.

EEMBC is a registered trademark of the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium.

More info:  Hypervisor Benchmark Suite for Embedded Systems - EEMBC