Hypervista Technologies is pleased to introduce HyperArmor, an extremely lightweight, incredibly fast, extensible pluggable hypervisor for the PC. HyperArmor leverages the hardware support for virtualization included in the new processors from Intel® and AMD® to provide the lowest possible level of systems control and security. While others are using this new technology to build virtualization products that lower the total cost of ownership for the enterprise and multi-server market, we are focused on and committed to providing the security benefits of hypervisor virtualization for the commodity PC.

A key feature of HyperArmor’s design is its pluggable architecture. HyperArmor’s pluggable architecture enables the development of a wide range and variety of hypervisor based functional modules. HyperArmor’s flexibility will allow organizations to tailor hypervisor solutions to their own mission needs and requirements.

HyperArmor is a multi-tier product. HyperArmor will be available to the individual consumer as a PC security utility that is expandable and configurable to their needs. HyperArmor will be available as a hypervisor software development kit (SDK) for individual developers or software development organizations who want to develop custom hypervisor solutions. Because there are no native hypervisor debuggers, we had to create our own to build HyperArmor. The hypervisor debugger will be available to developers as a standalone product.

HyperArmor is currently an internal beta release and is compatible with the 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP®, Windows Vista®, and Windows Server 2003®.

HyperArmor will be available as a public beta release in 2008.

A hypervisor is a thin layer of systems software that sits directly on top of the hardware and below the operating system. By design, the operating systems running on top of hypervisors can not determine that they are in fact a virtual machine being hosted by the hypervisor. The operating systems must “believe” it is talking directly to the system hardware resources, when in fact all calls to and interaction with the system hardware goes through, or is brokered by the hypervisor. The hypervisor has total control and omnipresent purview of all activity on the machine.

Most current activity and interest in hypervisors is in the area of virtualization, the aspect of hypervisors that facilitate the running of multiple instances of operating systems concurrently. We see hypervisors differently. Hypervisors are incredibly powerful constructs for systems security. We are focused on and dedicated to bringing hypervisor based security to the PC. Because the hypervisor has omnipresent control of the entire system and is essentially “hidden” from the operating system running on top of it, it makes the perfect “container” in which to place system security plug-in functionality. If malware can’t see the protection running, it can’t disable or alter it.