VMware to virtualise mobile phones

Multiple personalities

SILICON VALLEY software developer VMware has announced plans to virtualise the operating systems that run mobile phones.

The virtual machine pioneer controlled by EMC said it will extend virtualisation to mobile phone hardware through its VMware Mobile Virtualisation Platform (MVP), which it will build with software technology acquired from Trango Virtual Processors in October.

VMware's MVP will be a thin layer of software embedded on mobile phones that decouples applications and data from the underlying hardware. It will be optimised to run efficiently on memory-constrained devices that have low power consumption, according to VMware.

The company said VMware MVP will help handset vendors shorten software development cycles to get new hardware designs to market faster. It said users will also benefit from being able to run multiple software profiles on a single device, such as one system at work and another for personal use.

Paul Maritz, VMware president and CEO, said in a statement, "By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, we expect that virtualisation will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for phone users."

"There is a rapid and growing demand for virtualisation technologies from both the designers and consumers of next-generation mobile devices," said Eric Schorn, VP of processors marketing at ARM.

VMware has more information about its Mobile Virtualisation Platform available here.