Advanced Virtualization Technologies in Aerospace and Automotive Embedded System Applications 2007-01-3805

Virtualization technologies have been used to improve the efficiency of operating and managing IT environments. Many of the benefits of using virtualization technologies for IT can be realized by applying these technologies in the Embedded Systems Lifecycle Management (ESLM) solution for aerospace and automotive electronic and mechatronic systems. Furthermore, benefits of virtualization of embedded systems can be realized in the future once distributed embedded systems mature to the point of becoming an even more highly integrated and shared network of resources as IT environments are today. Virtualization technologies can be applied not only to the optimization of aerospace and automotive mechatronic and control systems designs, but also to improving the quality of requirements validation and testing of these systems. Both aerospace and automotive system developers should learn how to leverage virtualization technologies to improve their embedded system designs and the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) process.

The separation of software components from the hardware platforms has been identified as a significant step aerospace and automotive companies can make toward implementing a robust embedded systems lifecycle. This white paper examines the application of advanced virtualization technologies in the area of aerospace and automotive embedded systems as a means to achieve an effective way to that end, which is to separate software components from their hardware platforms. This paper also suggests uses for virtualization technologies that can help companies developing embedded systems to realize immediate value in their existing lifecycle processes before maturing in the application of these technologies to other areas of the lifecycle management process.