NOVA Microhypervisor

This is the source code for the NOVA microhypervisor.

The NOVA microhypervisor combines microkernel and hypervisor functionality and provides an extremely small trusted computing base for user applications and virtual machines running on top of it. The microhypervisor implements a capability-based authorization model and provides basic mechanisms for virtualization, spatial and temporal separation, scheduling, communication, and management of platform resources.

NOVA can be used with a multi-server environment that implements additional operating-system services in user mode, such as device drivers, protocol stacks, and policies. On machines with hardware virtualization features, multiple unmodified guest operating systems can run concurrently on top of the microhypervisor.

This code is experimental and not feature complete. If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.

Building

Required Tools

The following tools are required to compile the source code:

Tool	Minimum Version	Available From
binutils	2.38	https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/binutils/
gcc	12.4	https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcc/
make	4.0	https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/make/

Build Environment

The build environment can be customized permanently in Makefile.conf or ad hoc by passing the applicable ARCH, BOARD and PREFIX_ variables to the invocation of make as described below.

• PREFIX_aarch64 sets the path for an ARMv8-A cross-toolchain
• PREFIX_x86_64 sets the path for an x86 (64bit) cross-toolchain

For example, if the ARMv8-A cross-toolchain is located at

/opt/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-gcc
/opt/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-as
/opt/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-ld

then set PREFIX_aarch64=/opt/aarch64-linux/bin/aarch64-linux-

Supported Architectures

ARMv8-A (64bit)

For CPUs with ARMv8-A architecture and boards with

• either Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)
• or Flattened Device Tree (FDT)

x86 (64bit)

For CPUs with x86 architecture

• Intel VT-x (VMX+EPT) + optionally VT-d
• AMD-V (SVM+NPT)

and boards with Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI).

Platform	Build Command
Generic x86 ACPI Platform	make ARCH=x86_64

Booting

See the NOVA interface specification in the doc directory for details regarding booting the NOVA microhypervisor.

License

The NOVA source code is licensed under the GPL version 2.

Copyright (C) 2009-2011 Udo Steinberg <udo@hypervisor.org>
Economic rights: Technische Universitaet Dresden (Germany)

Copyright (C) 2012-2013 Udo Steinberg, Intel Corporation.
Copyright (C) 2014 Udo Steinberg, FireEye, Inc.
Copyright (C) 2019-2025 Udo Steinberg, BlueRock Security, Inc.

NOVA is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
published by the Free Software Foundation.

NOVA is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License version 2 for more details.

Contact

Feedback and comments should be sent to udo@hypervisor.org