Introducing the Arm RD-1AE Virtual Hardware Platform
The RD-1AE virtual hardware platform can execute the entirety of Arm's reference software deliverables which include type one hypervisors on the application cores and safety islands. For more details on all the software features, check out the Arm RD-1AE page at Arm Developer.
RD-1AE Virtual Hardware Baremetal Features
The diagram above, taken from the Arm Automotive Solutions page shows the architecture of RD-1AE. With the exception of the core count for the applications cluster, the virtual hardware platform faithfully represents the entirely of this architecture including SystemReady IR support, trusted services and Arm Trusted Firmware. The applications core count was reduced to four instead of 16 as listed in the diagram to make the platform more affordable to run. If you need a platform with more than the four provided, please let us know at support@corellium.com.
RD-1AE Virtual Hardware Virtualization Features
In addition to supporting all the baremetal features of RD-1AE, the virtual hardware platform also implements the entirety of the RD-1AE virtualization features including the ability to run Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors. The Arm software package includes the Xen hypervisor. While multiple commercial hypervisors have been validated on Corellium virtual hardware platforms they are not included.
The execution speed of the platform continues the Corellium tradition for silicon-like performance. The system boots to a Linux prompt in just under 30 seconds.
Building the Software
The RD-1AE virtual hardware platform executes all the software examples provided by Arm and many of these are available as pre-built images which can be chosen at device creation time. If you want to build your own versions of the software or if you wish to replace any component with your own, be sure to check out the support page for guidance. There are a few minor tweaks to the package to increase the available memory and remove PCI devices from the device tree as the model does not contain any PCI devices. Finally, since the platform is currently running on AWS Graviton 3 instances, the support page also shows how to compile without SVE support. This limitation will be removed once the platform is migrated to run on Graviton 4 servers. Stay tuned!
Availability
The RD-1AE virtual hardware platform is available today. If you don't already have an account you can request a trial here. If you have have an existing Arm ID, you can simply login and access your free trial. All trial accounts receive 100 free core-hours to use over 30 days. Once you have your account, you can login here.
What's Next?
We're far from finished rolling out auto-focused systems and solutions. We'll have a number of exciting follow ups coming out in the upcoming months. Stay tuned!
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