Moto says hello to mobile virtualisation

According to PC World, today will see Motorola join a list of investors which includes Cisco, Intel, Cisco and Texas Instruments by funding mobile virtualisation company VirtualLogix.

VirtualLogix lets a user can access two separate operating systems on the same handset – allowing them to share some resources like memory, but also keeping other areas, such as applications, securely apart. VirtualLogix says virtualisation will make the inclusion of Linux on lower and mid-tier handsets easier by by allowing a handset to run the Linux operating system “together with the existing mobile phone stack simultaneously on a single processor core, without requiring a separate applications processor”.

Virtualisation is hotter than hot for enterprise PCs right now, and if Motorola’s bet is anything to go by, mobiles are going to be next frontier. After all, Motorola has a foot in practically all OS camps – Linux, Windows Mobile, Symbian and its own proprietary stack – is this investment a sign it’s thinking of combining them? Or just a way of getting more Linux handsets into the market?