Shared hardware
Run more platform software on fewer boards while keeping ownership and failure domains visible.
Solution Area
Open source virtualization for embedded and automotive systems.
Build mixed-criticality platforms that consolidate Linux, RTOS, and specialized workloads onto shared hardware while keeping system boundaries explicit, inspectable, and maintainable throughout long product lifecycles.
Platform layers
User space
Applications
Application software sits above platform-owned boundaries instead of defining them.
Domains
Guest systems
Linux, RTOS workloads, and service domains can keep separate runtime and hardware assumptions.
Linux RTOS Services
Isolation boundary
Xen hypervisor
Scheduling, isolation, device assignment, and platform control stay visible close to hardware.
Shared compute
Hardware platform
Compute, memory, interrupts, peripherals, and SoC integration remain explicit system design inputs.
Xen separates application workloads, guest domains, hypervisor control, and shared hardware into visible platform layers.
Why virtualization matters here
Consolidate the platform without blurring the boundaries.
Embedded and automotive teams need to combine more software on shared compute while preserving engineering, validation, and maintenance boundaries.
Mixed workloads
Give Linux, RTOS workloads, service domains, and specialized systems clear places to coexist.
Explicit boundaries
Keep devices, boot flow, interrupts, and integration responsibilities visible.
Maintainable platforms
Support architectures that can evolve across long hardware, software, and product lifecycles.
Embedded platform breadth
The same separation model applies across embedded domains.
Xen can be evaluated wherever hardware-facing software, guest operating systems, and long-lived platform requirements share compute.
Industrial systems
Robotics
Medical and regulated devices
Edge appliances
Networking equipment
Specialized hardware platforms
Flagship embedded example
Software-defined vehicles make the separation challenge concrete.
Automotive platforms make the embedded challenge concrete: Linux systems, RTOS workloads, service domains, and hardware-specific functions increasingly share compute. Xen gives teams a thin layer for reasoning about isolation and ownership without treating one operating system as the whole platform.
ECU consolidation
Keep boundaries explicit as vehicle functions move toward shared compute.
Mixed workloads
Evaluate how IVI, service domains, Linux, RTOS workloads, and hardware-facing functions coexist.
Process tooling
The project also collaborates with BUGSENG on static analysis with ECLAIR, supporting MISRA C compliance efforts and ongoing code quality improvement.
Why architects choose Xen
Evaluation starts with architecture, evidence, and integration context.
After the separation model is clear, teams can evaluate Xen through architecture, isolation resources, guest model, governance, and public engineering process.
Thin hypervisor boundary
Xen gives platform teams a focused layer for separation decisions near hardware.
Hardware-aware isolation
Guest isolation and hardware-facing work stay visible instead of disappearing inside one OS.
Flexible guest model
Different operating environments can share a platform while retaining separate roles.
Open engineering model
Governance, contribution paths, security handling, and public testing resources are available for evaluation.
Long-lived maintainability
An open boundary helps teams plan products that must be inspected and updated over time.
Ecosystem
Sustained by organizations working across open virtualization.
Xen is sustained by organizations working across infrastructure, hardware, embedded, automotive, and security-sensitive systems. Membership supports infrastructure, events, trademark stewardship, and ecosystem coordination.
Next step
Evaluate Xen for your platform, or help shape the work.
Start with architecture resources, documentation, CI, and community contribution paths, or support the project through membership.