Virtualization makes its way into a handset
The Evoke runs the Linux OS, and it also handles BREW applications. Because both APIs are in place, they can launch and run BREW applications under Linux. The BREW application is then running in its own virtual machine on top of the BREW APIs.
One may ask why every handset isn't designed in this manner. "One reason is tradition, and the availability of mobile virtualization is relatively recent," says Weinberg. "And there's still some skepticism around virtualization."
It's also true that many designers simply are not aware of the potential benefits of virtualization. The technology has made a name for itself in the server space, but it's fairly new in mobile markets. In the server area, the virtual machines are hosted on top of a hypervisor, on top of an operating system, where it essentially lives inside a single application.
The technology deployed by OK Labs is more akin to data center mainframe virtualization, where the OS is booted into the hypervisor, which in turn boots each of the guest OSs. In this configuration, the hypervisor is supervising the whole system.
The OK Labs hypervisor, called OKL4, includes a microkernel. Hence, it's capable of enforcing security policy. This is not always the case with competitive products. In some cases, the alternative hypervisors rely on an RTOS as the primary guest OS and everything else is wrapped into a secondary guest OS. A problem with this approach is that if the guest fails or is compromised, the whole system can be affected.
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