  Virtualization is generally adopted in server and desktop environments to
provide for fault tolerance, resource management, and energy efficiency.
Virtualization enables parallel execution of multiple operating systems (OSs)
while sharing the hardware resources. Virtualization was previously not deemed
as feasible technology for mobile and embedded devices due to their limited
processing and memory resource. However, the enterprises are advocating Bring
Your Own Device (BYOD) applications that enable co-existence of heterogeneous
OSs on a single mobile device. Moreover, embedded device require virtualization
for logical isolation of secure and general purpose OSs on a single device. In
this paper, we investigate the processor architectures in the mobile and
embedded space while examining their formal visualizability. We also compare
the virtualization solutions enabling coexistence of multiple OSs in Multicore
Processor System-on-Chip (MPSoC) mobile and embedded systems. We advocate that
virtualization is necessary to manage resource in MPSoC designs and to enable
BYOD, security, and logical isolation use cases.
