Cells: Lightweight Virtual Smartphones

Cells is the first open-source virtualization architecture that enables multiple virtual smartphones and tablets to run simultaneously on the same physical device. Leveraging lightweight virtualization work done on Linux containers, Cells introduces a new device namespace framework that allows kernel and user space drivers to efficiently multiplex access to hardware. Unlike traditional virtual machine approaches that are too heavyweight for smartphones and tablets, the Cells device namespace framework is lightweight and provides native hardware performance when running multiple virtual phones or tablets. This includes fully accelerated 3D graphics, providing the same visual user experience for graphics-intensive applications that users have come to expect from their mobile devices. Cells transparently runs Android applications at native speed without any modifications, so you can use all your favorite applications from the Google Play store.

Cells has many uses. Multiple, isolated, virtual devices on the same phone can allow business professionals to carry a single phone that contains both corporate and personal phones, providing an efficient, high performance BYOD solution. Application developers can use multiple virtual devices to test different applications and configurations. Cells also gives parents a way to isolate applications and settings in a kid-friendly virtual tablet while simultaneously running a full-featured tablet configured with private email addresses and applications on the same physical tablet.

We invite anyone interested to download, build, and play with Cells. Our open-source release runs on the widely-used Nexus 7 tablet with the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean 4.3. Please follow the links below to see a demo of the system, read about technology behind the system, and download, build, and play with the system. Contributions are welcome.

While Cells is an open source GPL project, it has also been commercially licensed by Cellrox. For further information regarding the commercial release, please contact Cellrox.