Reduced service partition virtualization system and method

Abstract

A reduced service partition system and method for a host computing device having a host processor and system resources including memory divided into most privileged system memory and less privileged user memory. The system includes a virtualization boot application that operates in the less privileged user memory and divides the host computing device into a resource management partition, at least one virtual service partition and at least one virtual guest partition. The virtual guest partition provides a virtualization environment for at least one guest operating system. The virtual service partition provides a virtualization environment for the basic operations of the virtualization system. The resource management partition maintains a resource database for use in managing the use of the host processor and the system resources. A monitor operates in the most privileged system memory, and maintains guest applications in the at least one virtual guest partition within memory space allocated by the virtual service partition to the at least one virtual guest partition. A context switch between the at least one monitor and the respective virtual guest partitions and the virtual service partition controls multitask processing in the partitions on the at least one host processor.