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Xen as Static Partitioning Hypervisor for Embedded and Automotive

Xen can be configured to work as an embedded static partitioning hypervisor using Dom0less and the null scheduler.

Dom0less enables Xen to create multiple VMs in parallel at boot without any Dom0 interactions. Boot times become much shorter, making it easy to achieve sub-second boot times for an RTOS on top of Xen. Dom0 becomes just optional: it could be removed entirely, or a small RTOS could be used as Dom0 just for monitoring the system. For a quick way to setup Dom0less, refer to ImageBuilder.

The null scheduler is hard real-time scheduler that statically assign physical CPUs to virtual CPUs. With the null scheduler, there are no context switches and you get the best possible interrupt latency.

Cache Coloring and Deterministic Interrupt Latency

If you need a fully deterministic interrupt latency or hard real-time, a shared L2 cache across CPU cores assigned to different VMs can be a vehicle for interference. Xen can solve the problem for you by splitting the L2 cache in software using a technology called "cache coloring". With Cache Coloring, Xen provides a deterministic interrupt latency of 4 microseconds on Xilinx Ultrascale+ even under heavy interference from multiple sources.

Xen Safety-Certifications

Xen is already safety-certifiable, as stated by multiple well-respected safety assessors in the safety industry. There is an active working group, named Xen FuSa SIG, with the goal of making upstream Xen releases easier to safety-certify by users and better aligned with safety requirements. Currently the Xen FuSa SIG is improving MISRA C compatibility of the Xen codebase and introducing more tests to validate Xen external interfaces.