Microsoft Drawbridge Research Project

Drawbridge is an application-virtualization project developed by Microsoft researchers which can "show up inside a future Windows version -- or maybe even as underlying technology enabling Microsoft to better run existing Windows apps (virtually) on mobile devices" (as described by Mary Jo Folley : http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-goes-public-with-its-drawbridge-operating-system-research-project/11009 )
 
Drawbridge combines two core technologies:
First, a picoprocess, which is a process-based isolation container with a minimal kernel API surface.
Second, a library OS, which is a version of Windows enlightened to run efficiently within a picoprocess. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/drawbridge/

Additional Information:

Drawbridge: A new form of virtualization for application sandboxing (Video Ch9) :
 http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Going+Deep/Drawbridge-An-Experimental-Library-Operating-System

Microsoft Drawbridge: OS Modularity : http://jaggiz.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/microsoft-drawbridge-os-modularity/

Windows 'Drawbridge' Container Tech Sets Stage for Docker Battle -- Redmondmag.com

Midori, Drawbridge, Singularity: What Microsoft learns from operating system research  ZDNet

Are Containers the Beginning of the End of Virtual Machines? Virtualization Review