1. A system comprising: a platform having virtualization capabilities; at least one processor coupled to the platform, the at least one processor to run a general-purpose operating system (GPOS) in a first virtual machine (VM) on the platform; and a domain specific run-time environment (DSRTE) partitioned into at least two portions, wherein a first portion comprises non-performance critical processes to run under the GPOS in the first VM, and wherein at least one additional portion comprises at least one performance critical process to run on the platform outside of the first VM running the GPOS.