Trango Hypervisor Virtualizes Atmel's CAP Customizable Microcontroller

Solution significantly reduces CAP application software development time

ROUSSET, France, Feb. 21, 2008 -- Atmel Corporation and Trango Virtual Processors, a leading provider of Embedded Virtualization IP, announced the availability of Trango's Hypervisor for users of Atmel's AT91CAP9 customizable microcontroller. By creating multiple machine-independent virtual instances of the underlying CAP(TM) architecture, Trango's Hypervisor significantly reduces the time taken to develop CAP application software, and enables existing software to be re-used with minimal modification. Trango's Hypervisor runs on both the AT91CAP9A-STK Starter Kit for rapid prototyping and on the AT91CAP9A-DK Development Kit for in-depth application development. The joint solution enables customers to benefit from highly flexible customization, faster time to market and significant cost reduction in their CPU and system designs.

Built on Atmel's CAP that delivers a high degree of hardware customization (peripherals, interfaces and custom logic), the joint solution in addition offers much greater software flexibility. Support for multiple heterogeneous environments allows any Operating System, Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) or stand-alone application to be seamlessly integrated. Proprietary code and open source software can coexist, each in its own secure execution domain, protecting intellectual property investments while simultaneously promoting the use of open source software. Faster time to market, and lower cost is achieved from both a hardware and software perspective. NRE costs using Atmel CAP are significantly lower than for standard cell ASICs, whereas the Trango Hypervisor can bring about a substantial Bill of Material reduction by removing the need for additional processors for applications that usually require multiple CPUs.

The Atmel SoC is quite complete so designers need only focus on the integrated customizable logic. Meanwhile, the Trango Hypervisor allows maximum software re-use, and eases the work of integrating multiple projects. Both components of the solution strongly drive cost reduction and create a highly competitive and innovative product.

Target Applications. The joint solution addresses a wide range of market applications including multimedia devices, video security and industrial applications.

Trango Hypervisor

Virtualization is a software technology that allows developers to create multiple simultaneous execution environments. In practical terms that means that application software executing within each environment behaves as though it was the sole owner and proprietor of the SoC, when in fact execution is occurring on a virtual representation of the underlying hardware: the Trango Hypervisor creates virtual processors and their isolated execution environments within which an Operating System, Real-Time OS or applications can run. The Trango Hypervisor solution is shipped with full set of services (Power Management, Health Monitoring) and a complete SDK and tools suite based on Eclipse.

Atmel's CAP Customizable Microcontroller

Atmel's CAP(TM) is an ARM® microcontroller-based system-on-chip with fast local memory, a wide range of industry-standard peripherals and interfaces, and a Metal Programmable (MP) Block that allows the designer to add custom logic.

Availability

The Trango Hypervisor for the AT91CAP9 architecture is available now and its first demonstration is at Embedded World 2008, Nuremberg, Germany.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.

About Trango Virtual Processors

Trango Virtual Processors is a leading provider of embedded processor virtualization solutions, licensing Trango Hypervisor IP to major semiconductor and device manufacturers. The company helps customers to create robust security architectures, deploy new value-added services, and reduce development and bill-of-materials costs. Headquartered in Grenoble, France, Trango Virtual Processors has sales and support offices worldwide.
Trango Virtual Processors is an Elsys Design company.