> must be controlled by that separate computer Right, the "simple straightforward" solution for all of this is to have a separate SoC for each control unit you

> must be controlled by that separate computer Right, the "simple straightforward" solution for all of this is to have a separate SoC for each control unit you need. But this has lots of things that are suboptimal: 1. Less flexibility. You need to know ahead of time exactly how many SoCs you need. If at the 11th hour you decide you need another unit (or need one fewer), you have to go back and redesign your entire electronics layout. 2. Less efficiency. If your unit typically only uses a small portion of its compute power, it's still taking up space, taking up weight, and drawing a basic amount of "idle" power. With virtualization, your RT guest OSes typically still want their own dedicated core. But it's a lot more efficient to put a 6-core chip on a system that only needs 4 cores than to design 6 separate SoCs onto a system that in the end only needs 4 of them.