Kontron and Real-Time Systems GmbH sign distribution agreement for the RTS Hypervisor

Kontron and Real-Time Systems GmbH partner to provide application-ready and pre-integrated, real-time virtualization platforms

Eching/Nuremberg, Germany, February 28, 2012 – Kontron has announced the cooperation with Real-Time Systems to distribute their RTS Hypervisor on selected Computer-on-Modules, boards and systems with Intel® multi-core processors. Kontron will provide customers with application-ready, pre-integrated, real-time capable virtualization platforms from a single source to speed up time-to-market and reduce integration efforts for customers. The agreement complements Kontron’s portfolio of fully tested, application-ready platforms that combine standard embedded hardware with pre-integrated software suites such as operating systems, hypervisor technology and complementary middleware.

Kontron will showcase a demo system based on the Kontron V-Panel Express 170 equipped with the RTS Hypervisor at the Embedded World Trade Show (hall 1, booth 460). In this installation, a real-time OS (Wind River VxWorks 6.8) and a non-real-time OS (Windows 7 Professional) run independently on top of the RTS Hypervisor with 0 latency added in regards to hard real-time performance.

Kontron’s new pre-integrated virtualization platforms target applications in markets such as industrial, medical, military or transportation where customers rely on both a deterministic Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) for time- and/or mission-critical functions and a standard OS for other tasks, such as running a feature-rich graphical user interface (GUI). By utilizing the RTS Hypervisor and Kontron’s multi-core hardware, both the embedded real-time application and the GUI can now be implemented on a single consolidated hardware platform. This helps customers to cut costs for the second system to zero and increase Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and reliability.

"Embedded system configurations with real-time hypervisors are complex and not typically a plug & play implementation. Consequently, customers need more support from hardware and software experts and ideally from a single source," said Werner Ressle, Director of Software & Software Services of Kontron AG. "The cooperation with Real-Time Systems enables us to provide customers with a convenient out-of-the-box experience and they can now receive our embedded hardware platforms bundled with a pre-configured RTS Hypervisor including operating system licenses of their choice."

"Kontron, as the worldwide market leader in embedded computing technology is a strategic partner who can help us attain a very broad audience for our RTS Hypervisor in the markets with real-time requirements", said Gerd Lammers, CEO and President of Real-Time Systems GmbH. "We believe that offering hard- and software application-ready and from one source is very customer-friendly, as the customer can also get testing equipment from one supplier and only has one contact person in case of any queries during the application implementation."

Highlights of the RTS Hypervisor
The RTS Hypervisor allows customers to simultaneously run multiple instances of a real-time operating system, such as Wind River VxWorks, QNX, Windows CE or a heterogeneous mixture of operating systems, including general purpose operating systems (GPOS) such as Linux and Microsoft Windows. Because RTS Hypervisor does not depend on a specific host OS, all operating systems can start in any sequence, reboot independently and never harm each other just as if they were still separated in hardware. In order to facilitate communication between the separated operating systems, RTS Hypervisor implementations provide a configurable user-shared memory as well as a TCP/IP based virtual network. Further highlights are:

• Hard real-time performance (0 µs latencies added)
• Leverages Intel® VT technology to securely run GPOSes
• Direct hardware access - use standard device drivers
• 100% separation of operating systems in memory
• Use of standard development tools and IDE

Kontron is now supplying project services for the application-ready implementation of the RTS Hypervisor and the required host OS on customer-specific hardware platforms as part of its global software services.

For further information on Kontron’s latest product launches at the Embedded World Trade Show 2012, please visit: http://www.kontron.com/embedded-world2012-en

For further information on the RTS Hypervisor, please visit: http://www.real-time-systems.com/real-time_hypervisor/



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About Kontron
Kontron is a global leader in embedded computing technology. With more than 40% of its employees in research and development, Kontron creates many of the standards that drive the world’s embedded computing platforms. Kontron’s product longevity, local engineering and support, and value-added services, helps create a sustainable and viable embedded solution for OEMs and system integrators. Kontron works closely with its customers on their embedded application-ready platforms and custom solutions, enabling them to focus on their core competencies. The result is an accelerated time-to-market, reduced total-cost-of-ownership and an improved overall application with leading-edge, highly-reliable embedded technology.

Kontron is listed on the German TecDAX stock exchange under the symbol "KBC". For more information, please visit: http://www.kontron.com/


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Michael Hennen
SAMS Network
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