Motorola Invests In Virtual Machines For Mobile Devices

Motorola has made an equity investment in VirtualLogix, a real time virtualization software maker. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Previous investors in VirtualLogix include Cisco Systems, Intel Capital, Texas Instruments, Index Ventures, Atlas Venture, and DFJ Espirit.

Makers of processors, networking devices, and embedded systems have an interest in VirtualLogix because it produces a system for using a virtual machine on a mobile device. By using an embedded virtual machine, much of the software built for predecessor device hardware, such as the core processor, may be reused, even though the hardware for the latest version has changed.

By adopting VirtualLogix, cell phone makers and producers of other smart mobile devices can bring new designs to market faster, reusing previously developed software. A virtual machine can run an older copy of Linux, Windows, or the real time operating system that populated an earlier device and gave it its core features without adding processors or porting software.

As mobile devices proliferate with continued short life spans, "demand for simplified product designs that allow dynamic mobile experiences ... will intensify," said Reese Schroeder, managing director of Motorola Ventures, in announcing the investment.

"Virtualization offers a solution to this complexity. Our investment in VirtualLogix will help accelerate the delivery" of next generation communications devices and mobile infrastructure equipment, he said in a statement.

Several electronics manufacturers are seeking to leverage their existing software investments through embedded virtual machines, noted Peter Richards, CEO of VirtualLogix, in a statement.

By allowing new features to run directly under a device's operating system, and old features to run in a virtual machine under a different operating system, device makers keep separate what are potentially conflicting environments, he noted.