With so many things to write about from the Embedded Systems Conference last week, I hardly know where to start. So check back throughout the week as I'll try to cover each of the topics that are of most importance (and a couple that arose from sidebar conversations are really interesting).

First, an release that isn't derived from gossip, is the announcement from Green Hills that they're starting up a new business unit totally devoted to virtualization. At the time that I heard of the announcement, I questioned the need for a new business unit, and I'm still not sure I understand the reasoning. But regardless, it shows a strong commitment from the company in an area of technology that's just starting to come of age. Even before the announcement, there was little doubt in my mind that Green Hills was one of the leaders in this area.

According to a release made by the company, "The business unit’s flagship product, Integrity Secure Virtualization (ISV), supports hosting of Windows, Linux, VxWorks and other general purpose operating systems in secure virtual containers on ARM, Intel, Power and other processor architectures."

That sounds like virtualization to me.

As processors get more and more complex, the need for virtualization increases. And it's obvious that the processors are headed down that path.