ACRN Hypervisor vs IPFW
ACRN Hypervisor
projectacrn.orgIPFW
man.freebsd.orgSide by side
| Figure | ACRN Hypervisor | IPFW |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Server Virtualization Software | 8.0 (#7) | 7.8 (#8) |
| Purpose | ACRN is an open source reference hypervisor designed for embedded IoT development. | ipfw is the user interface for controlling the FreeBSD firewall, dummynet traffic shaper and packet scheduler, and in-kernel NAT services. |
Plans
In their own words
ACRN Hypervisor
ACRN Hypervisor is a free, open-source Type 1 hypervisor stack for embedded IoT development. It runs directly on Intel x86 bare-metal hardware and supports Linux, Windows and RTOS guests such as Zephyr; the project also lists VxWorks, Xenomai, Celadon and Android. CPU, I/O and networking virtualization are included, with I/O mediators for sharing graphics and audio across virtual machines. Resource partitioning is designed for safety-critical and non-safety-critical domains to coexist on one system-on-chip. The ACRN Device Model provides virtual device emulation. The project describes a codebase under 40K lines and reports low latency, fast boot times and responsive hardware communication. ACRN uses the BSD 3-Clause license, offers a command-line management interface and supports nested virtualization. Source code is maintained in a public GitHub repository with online documentation. Community help is available through mailing lists, IRC channels and monthly technical meetings.