- ACRN 2.0 uses a hybrid-mode architecture to support real-time industrial IoT workloads and edge devices
- Other features of ACRN 2.0 include ACRN architecture upgrade to support hybrid mode, new hardware platform support, pre-launched Safety VM support
Project ACRN, an open source IoT hypervisor hosted at the Linux Foundation has announced ACRN v2.0, which expands the scope of the project. It also introduces a new hybrid-mode architecture with a focus on industrial IoT and edge device use cases. It said that it will deliver flexibility in resource sharing and new levels of real-time and functional safety for demanding workloads in both the automotive and industrial segments.
Mike Dolan, senior vice president and general manager of projects at the Linux Foundation said, “The ACRN project is moving fast to address the increasingly complex requirements for IoT devices, networks and environments. This speed and agility in development can only be achieved through collaboration and we’re happy to be able to support this important work.”
Industrial IoT workloads and edge devices
ACRN 2.0 uses a hybrid-mode architecture to support real-time industrial IoT workloads and edge devices. It simultaneously supports both traditional resource sharing among Virtual Machines (VMs) and complete VM resource partitioning required for functional safety. It also enables workload management and orchestration and allows open source orchestrators like OpenStack to manage ACRN VMs. ACRN supports secure container runtimes such as Kata Containers orchestrated via Docker or Kubernetes.
Eddie Dong, senior principal engineer, architect, and maintainer of Project ACRN said, “The rapid evolution and development from version 1.0 to 2.0 in a year demonstrates the momentum of this project and the demand for a flexible, real-time, safety-critical, open source hypervisor for industrial players that are architecting mission-critical technologies.”
Other features of ACRN 2.0 include ACRN architecture upgrade to support hybrid mode, new hardware platform support, pre-launched Safety VM support, post-launched VM support via OVMF. It also includes post-launched real-time VM support, real-time VM performance optimisations, CPU sharing support, GRUB bootloader, SR-IOV support, Kata Containers support among others.
Rina Raman, vice president and general manager of the Embedded Acceleration Division at Intel Corporation said, “The fourth industrial revolution, characterized by a fusion of disruptive technologies, requires agility and the ability to consolidate heterogeneous workloads, some of which carry very strict requirements of Functional Safety certification or Real-Time behavior. With its 2.0 release, Project ACRN is now offering an open source hypervisor that makes such workload consolidation possible.”
