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Virtualization software provider VirtualLogix is rolling out VirtualLogix VLX MH4.0, the latest version of its software for mobile handsets that will enable mobile silicon vendors and OEMs to more easily design smartphone-like functionality into ARM-based feature phones.
The VLX technology, released Feb. 11, enables multiple operating systems and applications to function simultaneously in connected mobile devices.
“With this newest generation of VLX for ARM, VirtualLogix has increased the ability for developers to quickly adapt the latest generation of mobile silicon platforms and accelerate production of consumer mobile products with differentiation, advanced functionality and lower costs,” Glenda Dorchak, vice chairman and CEO of VirtualLogix, said in a statement. “VLX solves fundamental challenges by allowing re-use of proven wireless software with the latest high-level operating systems, thus reducing overall development issues and costs by lessening requirements for retesting and recertification.”
The new version of VLX supports all ARM processors and proprietary operating systems, and can be used with Google’s Android. It also includes a virtualized version of the Android OS, which isolates it from the handset’s peripheral devices, multimedia accelerators and codes.
Removing hardware dependencies in the virtualized Android, VirtualLogix explains, makes it “easier and faster to integrate on hardware platforms and to upgrade to new releases of Android by removing the burden of re-integrating all hardware differentiators that are built into mobile handset platforms.”
Research firm IDC has predicted that Android will experience the fastest growth of any mobile OS. While 690,000 devices running Android shipped in 2008, IDC expects that number to reach 68 million by 2013, putting it in second place by the Symbian OS.
California-based VirtualLogix will be showing off the VLX MH4.0 at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, which runs Feb. 15-18.