NOVA Microhypervisor

The NOVA OS Virtualization Architecture is a research project aimed at constructing a secure virtualization environment with a small trusted computing base. NOVA consists of a microhypervisor and an unprivileged multi-server user environment running on top of it.

NOVA Overview

Like third-generation microkernels, the NOVA microhypervisor uses a capability-based authorization model and provides only basic mechanisms for virtualization, spatial and temporal separation, scheduling, communication, and management of platform resources. The disaggregated multi-server environment implements additional operating-system services in user mode, such as device drivers, protocol stacks, and policies. On machines with hardware virtualization features, NOVA can run multiple unmodified guest operating systems concurrently. Each VM has its own associated virtual-machine monitor (VMM) that runs as an unprivileged user application on top of the microhypervisor.

Supported Platforms

User Environments

Download

The source code of the NOVA microhypervisor is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2.

Publications

Additional Resources