LaLa: a late launch application

Abstract

Numerous systems have been proposed in the past to decrease Operating System (OS) loading times. More recently instant-on solutions which only implement a reduced function set, are becoming more popular. While they are satisfying the user's need to quickly operate on a platform, they are mutually exclusive and force the user to make a decision which system to use during the platform boot. We present in this paper a flexible architecture which enables a platform user to benefit from the advantages of a fast booting platform and a full-featured mainstream OS at the same time. The instant-on system and a full-featured OS can coexist and share the same resources. Moreover, our design enhances the concept of an instant-on system with secure, trustworthy and policy enforced compartments. Our unique approach combines the latest hardware virtualisation and trust technologies to deliver a more robust platform to address the tight security requirements in a corporate environment.