California's Phoenix Technologies, the company most famous for its BIOS, has announced an upgrade to its HyperSpace virtual Linux environment that will allow a system's DVD player to be accessed independently from the core OS.

Phoenix's HyperSpace is essentially an embedded Linux OS that accompanies the system firmware or BIOS that acts as an instant-on platform upon which applications can run, no matter what the status of the main operating system may be.

HyperSpace can run applications while the main operating system is starting up, cycling, or even if it has failed entirely. Today, Phoenix has announced that through a collaboration with Corel LinDVD, HyperSpace will soon have its own DVD player that will also be able to run irrespective of the condition of the system OS.

A major interest to consumers is the ability to watch DVDs in the Linux environment while Windows is in sleep mode, greatly reducing the battery consumption of mobile PCs. Many of the most commonly used applications are available instantly through Hyperspace, such as Web browsers, e-mail and IM clients, soft phones and media players.