On Target: Embedded Systems

Can Google Defend Open Source Software?

2012-05-22T12:40:23-04:00

As you probably know, Google is currently entrenched in a battle with Oracle over the use of Java in Android. The trial may be only a month old, but the war began with the original suit filed in August 2010 for alleged copyright and patent infringement related to the Java programming language. However, this case is not just about Google defending its use of the technology or simply lining its pockets. The outcome of this trial has the potential to cripple the Android ecosystem and other open source projects as well.

The copyright phase of the trial has the attention of the software community. On May 7, 2012 a jury ruled that Google had violated Oracle’s copyright on 37 APIs, but could not decide if the violation was an acceptable level of fair use. Judge William Alsup of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has been tasked with ruling on the big question: Can the structure, sequence, and organization (SSO) of an API be covered under copyright law?

If Judge Alsup finds in favor of Google and decides that the SSO of an API cannot be copyrightable, Oracle will be rewarded a maximum of $150,000 in statutory damages for each of the two counts brought against Google.

However, a ruling in the opposing favor would send toxic ripples throughout the software industry. Google would be required to attain a license through Oracle and pay significant royalties so long as they continue to produce Android. Oracle would then have the ability to charge a licensing fee to all Android manufacturers. Whether Android remains free or not is critical not only to phone manufacturers, but to Android’s push into other embedded vertical markets as well. Android developers are already hesitant to venture beyond the smartphone/tablet arena because of the additional engineering work required to extend the Android platform beyond such applications, and licensing/royalty concerns would only amplify that hesitation.

The licensing requirement would resonate throughout open source projects. Regardless if the license is free or not, programmers may potentially steer away from using Java in favor of other programming platforms. Open source platforms like Linux would be in jeopardy because of their use of foreign APIs (portions of Linux APIs duplicate those from commercial software). To top things off, programmers would no longer be able to implement “clean room design” to reverse engineer and replicate software.

This case is far from over as appeals are expected to follow. Google has already moved for a mistrial as a result of the jury’s split verdict over the fair use question, over which Judge Alsup is currently deliberating. For more information on litigation surrounding Android please see our past blog post: Will Legal Battles Jeopardize Android’s Rise to Dominate the Device Market? Stay tuned as VDC Research continues to follow Oracle v. Google.

Security Requirements Driving Major Changes In Embedded Computing Ecosystem

2012-05-16T12:56:24-04:00

In a strategically important move driven by significant changes in embedded computing, ETAS recently announced their intent to acquire security solution provider ESCRYPT. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the modeling tool vendor confirmed that the acquisition is intended to strengthen the independent professional services division that they first established in January.

VDC’s View

Security has quickly emerged as the hot button issue within the embedded industry. As we’ve written about recently, the injection of connectivity requirements within many new device categories has left embedded engineering organizations recognizing a need for improved security, but often unsure of how best to harden their devices.

The automotive sector serves as a perfect example of how the evolution of a device category – and the resulting increase in security risks - can challenge the traditional ecosystem and engineering cultures. We see four key factors contributing to a rapidly rising security risk in the auto industry, many of which are common to other industries as well:

Cars are increasingly becoming Internet-enabled, in response to surging consumer demand for enhanced in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and other new emerging applications.
Additionally, the growing interconnectivity of the various electronic control units (ECU) within vehicles is now providing a pathway for threats to move from system to system.
Automobile OEMs are generally siloed, with teams focused on the development of individual ECUs. As a result, insufficient attention is being given to the risk created by the interconnection of ECUs.
Security is an entirely new problem for automobile OEMS that their existing engineering organizations have little or no experience addressing.

Similar trends can be found in virtually every industry, as OEMs race to develop next-generation products that leverage sensing, processing, I/O technologies, and connectivity to enable innovative new features and create entirely new revenue streams. And without any relevant expertise in security, we see the need for products and services such as those offered by ETAS/ESCRYPT as acute.

As we look broadly across the embedded technology landscape and the emerging Internet of Things, we see OEMs struggling with the issue of security, and vendors large and small aggressively trying to establish themselves as the leading security solution provider. These include Intel through its McAfee acquisition, IBM with its reorganization and establishment of a security solutions division, Mocana with its focus on securing the Internet of Things, Wind River with its formation of a security-focused professional services team, and many, many others.

With this market dynamic in mind, VDC has just announced a new research program dedicated to exploring this topic in greater depth. Our Voice of the Customer: Security & The Internet of Things program will provide OEMs, IT managers, and operators alike with the information that they need to develop and implement robust security strategies that can address the challenges posed by today’s Internet of Things. To learn more, please contact us…

The Embedded Software Beat

2012-05-11T09:43:31-04:00

A Q&A with John Carbone, Vice President of Marketing, Express Logic

This interview is the first in a series that we look to conduct during the course of 2012 with embedded software solution providers to share views on their company, products, and state of the market.

VDC: Congratulations on the 15 year anniversary for Express Logic in the RTOS business. Can you briefly introduce the company to our readers?

Carbone: Express Logic is a software company, focused on real-time operating systems (RTOS), related middleware, and development tools for embedded systems. Our ThreadX RTOS was introduced in 1997, and has been deployed in over 1.25 billion electronic products, including HP printers, Apple iPhones, Welch Allyn medical devices, and a host of other well-known products in the consumer, medical and industrial-control areas. Our technology is small, fast, real-time, and easy to use. Our products are licensed with full source code and are 100% royalty-free.

VDC: You recently reported a record banner year for product license sales for 2011. What were the drivers for this success?

Carbone: We believe the biggest factor was the large number of embedded development projects that were “re-activated” from previous suspensions at the onset of the economic downturn. Many companies, both new and repeat customers, funded projects that required an RTOS, and we were fortunate to have been selected by a good number of them, leading to our record revenue for 2011. We saw the beginning of this activity in late 2010, and it continued through 2011 to this day.

Also fueling our record sales in 2011 is the popularity of ARM’s Cortex-M3 and M4 architectures, for which ThreadX is an ideal fit and for which our royalty-free licensing is especially appealing. High-volume manufacturers of smartphones and other handheld devices that use Cortex-M3 and M4 also find our no-royalty licensing a great way to reduce their COGS.

VDC: Express Logic recently expanded the product engineering team in Shanghai, China. What’s the status of the move and what responsibilities will the Shanghai team have?

Carbone: Our engineering team in Shanghai, established during 2011, focuses on networking software. They develop high-performance drivers for our NetX Duo TCP/IP stack, enabling us to support the plethora of Ethernet controllers used in networked devices. The team, made up of university graduate researchers with excellent skills in embedded software development, is managed by our VP of Engineering, who is a native of Shanghai. This gives us a unique ability to interact with the team, and it has led to numerous successful projects even in this short period of time.

VDC: The ThreadX RTOS has been deployed in over a billion devices. How does ThreadX scale to meet the engineering needs for such a broad spectrum of applications (from printers to cell phones to space probes)?

Carbone: ThreadX is much like a RISC architecture for software. We provide fundamental services, from which more complex operations can be constructed. Like a RISC processor, these services are designed to be extremely fast, so they can be combined and applied to a wide variety of applications without excessive overhead. This makes ThreadX efficient for both small and large requirements, much like RISC processors that now handle virtually all computing requirements in embedded systems.

VDC: The “Build versus Buy” dilemma has been a challenge facing engineering organizations for years. How has the growing availability of low to no cost open source and other types of RTOS solutions affected the decision to migrate to commercially available and supported OS platforms?

Carbone: Certainly, there are applications that do not warrant an RTOS, but these are at the very low end of functionality, and are generally one-shot solutions for very specific, simple needs. Beyond these opportunities, we believe that a “build” decision is both inefficient and unnecessary, given the wealth of commercial offerings that are available. And, we believe that selection of a “free” or “low-cost” solution simply because of its price is misguided. Studies indicate that the benefits of a product that gets to market faster far outweigh any savings in acquisition cost. Developers should be alarmed by the fact that these same studies show that “free” offerings can slow time to market below the industry average, exposing the development team to the extremely painful and expensive cost of “free.”

The use of quality development tools and RTOS increase the likelihood of product success through faster time to market, greater product quality and reduced support costs. These benefits far outweigh any cost savings from DIY or “free” tools and RTOS use. So, in our opinion, either building in-house or using a “free” or “low-cost” solution, solely based on cost considerations, is unwise. We believe that the investment in selecting and using “the best tools for the job” pays many dividends through the production of better products, brought to market sooner than would be experienced with inferior tools.

More than once, teams, that elected to use low-cost tools due to lack of budget, have returned to us 6-18 months later after experiencing disappointing results. In such instances, the cost these customers incurred, both in extended development and loss of time to market, is incredibly unfortunate.

VDC: If you were to take a look a look into your crystal ball, how do see the opportunities for the embedded software market shaping up for 2012?

Carbone: I fully expect the global economy to continue its recovery, slowly but surely, and with that will come the spending that motivates manufacturing companies to develop new products for these buyers. I’m optimistic about the long-term, and I’m looking forward to another great year for Express Logic.

VDC: Thank you John.

Interested in participating in VDC’s “The Embedded Software Beat” series of interviews? Please reach out and let us know.

New VDC Research Program Will Provide Valuable Insights into Security and M2M / The Internet of Things

2012-05-08T14:29:52-04:00

We wanted to let you know about an important new annual research program we are launching called The Voice of the Customer Series: Security & The Internet of Things. The series, which is based on extensive primary research of engineering organizations, solution vendors, and enterprise/IT and consumer behavior, will provide you with the information you need to formulate and implement a best-in-class security strategy.

We’ve designed this program to help senior OEM engineering managers responsible for product development and deployments and IT managers coordinating M2M and enterprise-to-device connectivity. This service will help them understand how organizations are approaching the big decisions of security risk management, technology and vendor selection, device deployment, and more. We will also be highlighting consumer awareness and perceptions regarding security across a range of device classes. Some of the issues we’ll be looking at during the next 12 months include:

Engineering organizations’ perception of the growing threat of security issues as well as the steps they are taking to reduce the those risks
Consumers’ perception of this risk and desire for security enhancements across a range of consumer devices as a means to better inform the security solution selection process for OEMs and Enterprise/IT organizations
How the Internet of Things is impacting what network managers are doing today and what they should consider going forward as more embedded and mobile devices connect to their infrastructure
Customer feedback on the vendor landscape for embedded and mobile device security solutions and accompanying analyses of some of the leading security solution vendors

Want to learn more? Click here to download the Research Outline.

Embedded/Real-time Operating System Market - Uneven Growth in 2011 – Slower Growth Expected Over the Forecast Period

2012-04-30T09:44:04-04:00

In 2011, growth in the market was uneven and the rate of growth below what VDC had forecasted from last year. Suppliers in the market expressed mixed views on the state of the market in 2011 and the challenges they faced during the course of the year.

VDC estimates that the market for embedded/real-time operating systems was greater than $1 billion in 2011, an increase of slightly more that 5% from a revised 2010 estimate. Over the forecast period we expect this market segment to grow at a combined annual rate of less than 6% per year through 2014.

OEMs have been affected by the global economy where companies have reduced staff, yet productivity expectations are increasing – doing more with less. The economic uncertainty tends to drive lower project costs (hardware consolidation, hardware platform choices, free tools and software, etc.) and cause project delays or cancellations.

VDC expects that the fast changing pace of technology and new functionality demands will continue to affect OEM decisions in a move to commercially available software platforms creating growth opportunities.

Our recently published report, Volume 1: Embedded/Real-time Operating Systems, from Track 2 of VDC's Strategic Insights 2012: Embedded Software Market and Tools Market provide additional insight and trends affecting the Embedded/Real-time Operating System market. Please contact us for more information.

So Whatcha Gonna Do With That Modeling Tool?

2012-04-30T08:34:00-04:00

As we’ve mentioned in this space before, the level of software content and system complexity is rapidly expanding in multiple verticals such as automotive and avionics. Given the challenges of these industries, it is not surprising they have been long time user of modeling tools. In fact, modeling tools have emerged as the tool of choice to address a number of complex design challenges.

A look at some of our findings from VDC’s 2012 Software and System Development Survey, our extensive survey of the embedded and enterprise engineering community that we provide with our Software & System Modeling Tools report, illustrates the degree to which the actual use of standard and proprietary language-based tools is spread over a wide range of engineering tasks.

Our findings suggest that use cases for modeling tools have continued to expand as advances in functionality enable many engineers to utilize the tools outside of their originally intended design.

So what’s next?

Many of today’s incumbent processes and tools are limited in their efficacy and relevance in addressing the growing level of system complexity within and between various embedded subsystems in a common deployment scenario, such as might be encountered in an airplane, automobile, or manufacturing line. Much in the same way increased system complexity has elevated the value proposition of modeling solutions, we believe it will become more and more important for engineering organizations to find new methods for managing overall system development across different engineering domains.

VDC has been in discussion with numerous stakeholders around this cross domain concept. We have been hearing progressively more interest about enhanced integration and collaboration between different engineering disciplines from OEM and tool supplier communities.
VDC believes the facilitation of collaboration across project and product teams and improved visibility into product/product requirements, design, and status are among the benefits that could be realized through cross domain integration.
Results from VDC’s 2012 Software and System Development Survey indicate not only is a large percentage of engineering organizations investigating integrations across multiple domains, but perhaps more importantly, the research suggests they will look to software vendors to lead this effort.

For further investigation and discussion about these trends and others, please see our recently published report, Software & System Modeling Tools, volume 1 of our 2012 Software & System Lifecycle Management Tools Market Intelligence Service. Please contact us for more information.

Don’t Rely Solely on Mil/Aero, the Largest Software & Systems Modeling Tools Segment

2012-04-26T08:26:03-04:00

As code bases grow in complexity and organizations commit more of their time and resources to software development, embedded engineers and enterprise developers are increasingly turning to software modeling tools to help manage this complexity while still meeting ever greater time-to-market pressures. The considerable market opportunities for modeling tools as one of the methods depended upon to clarify requirements, understand behavior, and design the functionality are highlighted in VDC’s recently published Software & System Modeling Tools report.

VDC estimates the market for embedded software and system modeling tools and related services will expand at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) greater than 10% through 2014. A growing requirement for interconnectivity between devices and their support systems is forcing engineers and developers to take other systems’ requirements and resources into consideration, contributing to a strong use case for modeling tools.

An increased focus on interconnectivity and intelligent systems in both the defense and avionics segments, as well as the expanding adoption of industry standards such as DO-178C, which emphasize traceability, reuse, and modeling, will spur growth in product sales in the industry going forward. VDC estimates show the military / aerospace industry is the largest vertical market for embedded SSMT in 2011.

We believe however, that government defense budget reductions and shifting military plans in Europe and the US may disrupt or cancel several planned projects. Therefore growth opportunities going forward will be dependent upon increased demand for automation in multiple industries and continued implementation of certification requirements in industries less penetrated by modeling tools such as medical, industrial automation and energy/power.

VDC investigated these market dynamics among others in this evolving segment in our recently published report, Software & System Modeling Tools, volume 1 of our 2012 Software & System Lifecycle Management Tools Market Intelligence Service. Please contact us for more information.

Embedded Bits and Bytes – In case you missed these announcements from the last several weeks...

2012-04-20T15:01:36-04:00

AdaCore, provider of tools and expertise for the mission-critical, safety-critical, and security-critical software communities, announced that Embraer Defense and Security has selected the GNAT Pro Ada development environment from AdaCore as a primary tool set to develop the Operation Flight Program for the AMX Modernization program.
http://www.adacore.com/press/embraer-amx-upgrade/

ARM announced the availability of a high performance, power-optimized quad-core hard macro implementation of its flagship ARM® Cortex™-A15 MPCore™ processor.
http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-announces-cortex-a15-quad-core-hard-macro.php

Atego, the world leading software tools and professional services supplier for complex, mission- and safety-critical systems and software engineering has launched the DO-178 Process Library for its ground breaking process definition, management and deployment product, Atego Process Director.
http://www.atego.com/pressreleases/pressitem/atego-launches-atego-process-director-for-do-178

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, announced the Cadence Virtual System Platform has been named a winner in the EE Times and EDN 2012 UBM Electronics ACE Awards in the Software Ultimate Products category.
http://www.cadence.com/cadence/newsroom/press_releases/pages/pr.aspx?xml=040212_ace_awards

Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications, and the digital home, announced that financial results for the first quarter of 2012 will be below the company’s previous outlook.
http://www.cavium.com/newsevents_Cavium_Financial_Outlook_Q1-2012.html

Coverity, Inc., the leader in development testing, announced the availability of the latest version of its development testing platform, Coverity 6.0, and its new online developer community, CoverityConnect.
http://www.coverity.com/html/press/coverity-drives-developer-collaboration-around-the-globe-with-coverity-6.html

dSPACE TargetLink 3.3, the new version of dSPACE's production code generator, provides elaborately expanded features for AUTOSAR-compliant development of electronic control units, and supports the latest AUTOSAR standards 4.0 and 3.2.
http://www.dspace.com/en/inc/home/company/dspace_pressroom/press/pr120302.cfm

Enea® (NASDAQ OMX Nordic:ENEA), a leading operating system solution vendor for 3G and 4G infrastructure equipment, is announced Enea Linux together with complementing innovative technologies addressing next generation networking infrastructure demands.
http://www.enea.com/Corporate/Press/Press-releases/Press-release/?item=651230

Esterel Technologies, a worldwide provider of model-based development solutions for critical systems and software, announced the immediate availability of SCADE System, a systems design and modeling tool suite that has been developed specifically for use on critical systems with high dependability requirements, providing a full support of industrial systems engineering processes, such as
ARP 4754, ISO 26262, and EN50126.
http://www.esterel-technologies.com/news-events/press-releases/2012/Esterel-Technologies-Announces-Immediate-Availability-of-SCADE-System

Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), announced that the ThreadX® RTOS now is available for multicore systems in both Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) or Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP) modes.
http://rtos.com/news/detail/express_logics_threadx_rtos_solves_multicore_smp_and_amp_programming_c/

Freescale Semiconductor Holdings I, Ltd. (NYSE:FSL) announced that its Board of Directors has launched a formal process to identify a successor to Chairman and CEO Rich Beyer, who has informed the Board of his decision to retire as CEO upon the appointment of a new CEO.
http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1685235&highlight=

GrammaTech, Inc., a manufacturer of source-code analysis tools, unveiled a next-generation software architecture visualization system. The new system incorporates a sophisticated new interface for viewing the relationships between software program elements. The system is integrated with CodeSonar, GrammaTech’s static-analysis tool for detecting defects.
http://www.grammatech.com/news/2012/releases/03-27-12-II.html

Green Hills Software, a leading vendor of embedded software solutions, is celebrating its 30-year anniversary.
http://www.ghs.com/news/20120327_ESC_30_years_industry_leadership.html

IAR Systems® announces that its high-performing C/C++ compiler and debugger tool suite IAR Embedded Workbench® now supports STM32F051.
http://www.iar.com/en/About/Pressroom/Press-releases/2012/4/IAR-Systems-supports-the-new-STM32-F0-low-cost-ARM-Cortex-M0-microcontrollers-from-STMicroelectronics/

Cloud Computing Q&A: IBM SmartCloud
http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2012/04/cloud-computing-qa-ibm-smartcloud/

Intel Corporation and Lava International Ltd., one of India’s fastest-growing mobile handset companies, announced the general availability of the XOLO X900, the first smartphone with Intel inside. The device will be available to customers for purchase beginning 23rd April at a best-buy street price of approximately INR 22000.
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2012/04/18/xolo-x900-first-smartphone-with-intel-inside-launches-in-india-market

Real-time software provider IntervalZero, Inc., and Alta Data Technologies, a leading provider of MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC interface cards, software and Ethernet convertor/appliances, have formed a strategic partnership to provide real-time Microsoft Windows capabilities for avionics applications.
http://www.intervalzero.com/newsevents/intervalzero-alta-data-technologies-form-avionics-partnership/

Klocwork Inc, the global leader in automated source code analysis (SCA) solutions for developing more secure and reliable software, announced that Klocwork Insight™ has achieved an official Certificate of Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) Compatibility for attaining the highest level of CWE support that is currently offered by The MITRE Corporation's formal CWE Compatibility and Effectiveness Program.
http://www.klocwork.com/news/press-releases/releases/2012/PR-2012_03_26-Klocwork-Achieves-CWE-Compatibility-Certification.php

Lauterbach, a leading manufacturer of hardware assisted microprocessor development tools, has launched a new debug probe which provides state-of-the-art debug features for the new high-performance Broadcom XLP processor family. TRACE32® now supports all Broadcom multi-core processor families XLP, XLR and XLS.
http://www.lauterbach.com/frames.html?home.html

LDRA Certification Services (LCS), a division of LDRA, a leading provider of safety-critical software verification tools and software best practices announced a fully compliant IEC 62304 and ISO 14971 certification solution for medical device manufacturers.
http://www.ldra.com/en/component/content/article/11-news-press-releases/488-ldra-offers-iec-62304-and-iso-14971-certification-readiness-services-for-medical-devices

LynuxWorks™, Inc., a leader in the embedded safety and security software market, announced the availability of its board support package (BSP) and corresponding DO-178B level C artifacts for the Curtiss-Wright SVME/DMV-183 rugged single-board computer.
http://www.lynuxworks.com/corporate/press/2012/ruggedized-do-178b-rtos.php

MathWorks announced the launch of dedicated Model-Based Design consulting services for ISO 26262 projects.
http://www.mathworks.com/company/pressroom/MathWorks-Offers-Tailored-Services-for-ISO-26262-Projects-with-Model-Based-Design.html

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) announced the release of its next generation Mentor® Embedded Linux platform.
http://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/news/mentor-embedded-continues-to-simplify-linux

Micrium and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced the completion of a new book based on the uC/TCP-IPTM network stack and TI's highly popular Stellaris® EVALBOT robotic evaluation platform.
http://micrium.com/page/press_room/news/id:72

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, announced the acquisition of Roving Networks, an innovator in low-power embedded Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® solutions based in Los Gatos, Calif.
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/press-release/microchip-acquires-roving-netw.html

MontaVista® Software, LLC, a leader in embedded Linux® commercialization services, announced the release of MontaVista Carrier Grade Linux for ARM.
http://mvista.com/press_release_detail.phpfid=news/2012/MontaVista_Announces_CGE_for_ARM.html&d=537

National Instruments announced NI LabVIEW software- and NI hardware-compatible mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, helping engineers integrate the latest mobile technology into their applications
http://digital.ni.com/worldwide/bwcontent.nsf/websearch/96793ae41c7e4c29862579dc004a9521?opendocument&nisrc=RSS-news-en

PRQA | Programming Research, a leader in static analysis, announces a major upgrade to QA•C++. Version 3.0 is a substantial new release of this leading static analysis tool for C++ environments that incorporates a sophisticated deep-flow dataflow analysis technology along with support for the major features in ISO C++ 2011.
http://www.programmingresearch.com/press-releases/2012/prqa-upgrades-qac-with-defect-and-security-vulnerability-detection-and-iso-c-2011-support/

PTC® (Nasdaq: PMTC) announced the latest version of its Windchill® product lifecycle management (PLM) software, which is now also integrated with PTC's recently acquired IntegrityTM software system lifecycle management technology.
http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/textsub.jsp?&im_dbkey=138771&icg_dbkey=21&lang=en

QNX Software Systems Limited, a global leader in software platforms for the in-car infotainment and telematics market, announced that it has joined the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), an organization driving innovation for phone-centric car connectivity solutions.
http://www.qnx.com/news/pr_4955_1.html

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, announced availability of the latest release of its Synplify Pro® and Synplify® Premier FPGA synthesis tools.
http://synopsys.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1019

SYSGO won two new major deals in the railway area for which it received the official certificate from TÜV SÜD certifying the qualification of PikeOS up to SIL 3 according to IEC 61508 and up to SIL 3-4 according to EN 50128.
http://www.sysgo.com/news-events/press/press/details/article/sysgos-pikeos-receives-official-tuev-certificate/

Viosoft Corporation, a supplier of integrated embedded software solutions, announced the availability of the next generation of their award winning Arriba for Android development platform. The Arriba for Android environment fully enables the creation / porting of high performance applications for the Google Android software platform for the newest multiple core devices regardless of the architecture.
http://www.viosoft.com/?q=node/77

Wind River, a leader in embedded and mobile software, has expanded its portfolio of Android offerings with the introduction of automotive-market specific software. Wind River Solution Accelerator for Android, Automotive helps in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) device manufacturers shorten the development time of high-quality Android-based IVI systems. As the latest addition to the Wind River Solution Accelerator for Android series, the new automotive software adds to the existing medical, connectivity and user experience software collection.
http://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=10601

VDC Research looks forward to companies contacting us for a briefing on new announcements around products, new partnerships and alliances, or other changes within your organizations. At a minimum please make sure that we are included in your press/analyst relations distribution list for new announcements as they become public.

Need to Strengthen Your Engineering Skillset?

2012-04-18T17:34:58-04:00

We have discussed a great many embedded development trends and challenges in this space in recent months. From security concerns to the continued adoption of multicore and the importance of adhering to certification standards in certain industries, there is no shortage of complications impacting today’s embedded engineers.

As embedded development becomes increasingly complicated, it is imperative that engineers stay up-to-speed on all the latest trends and techniques, particularly as leading embedded hardware and software vendors continue to integrate cutting-edge technology and functionality into their solutions. For engineers, training sessions provide an opportunity to strengthen skills through lectures, hands-on sessions, and the shared experiences of other engineers.

Our friends at Barr Group will be offering such an opportunity in just a few weeks. Embedded software engineers are encouraged to register now for Barr Group's popular Embedded Software Boot Camp on May 7-11 in Maryland. This one-week embedded software skills strengthening program is an intense (yet fun!) program and is designed to quickly and dramatically improve the quality of embedded software created by the individuals and teams that attend.

Everyone who attends the Embedded Software Boot Camp learns a ton, including:

How to write portable device drivers and interrupt handlers in C
How to decide if an RTOS will benefit your application
How to architect real-time software to ensure all deadlines are met
More than 50 practical tips for reducing firmware bugs
How to fix or prevent each of the top 10 firmware bugs

Space is limited, so to register, please go to the following website: http://www.barrgroup.com/training-calendar

We feel that these types of offerings are becoming more and more important to the engineering community, and engineers should embrace the training opportunities available through hardware vendors, software vendors, and third-party organizations such as Barr Group.

DESIGN West Bulletin – Part 2, Meetings Wrap-up

2012-04-03T18:40:03-04:00

As noted in Part 1 of our DESIGN West Bulletin, VDC attended the 2012 DESIGN West/Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose from March 27th through March 30th. We met with more than 30 companies to discuss product announcements and a variety of industry trends impacting the embedded market today. Part 1 noted our Embeddy award winner (GrammaTech) and runner-up (Mosaic Software) and contained a brief discussion around Enea’s Linux strategy. The following is a round-up of the remainder of our meetings.

WALKING THE FLOOR

AdaCore announced that Embraer Defense and Security had selected the Ada language and AdaCore’s GNAT Pro Ada development environment for use within a modernization program targeting AMX jets used by the Brazilian Air Force. Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS was also selected for this project.

Cadence Design Systems added support for the 12Gb/s and NVM Express cloud computing protocol standards to its Cadence Verification IP (VIP) Catalog.

Express Logic, celebrating its 15-year anniversary, discussed the introduction of ThreadX-Lite and its integration with IAR Embedded Workbench. This subset of ThreadX is to be offered exclusively by IAR Systems and is specifically designed for microcontrollers from Atmel, Freescale, Fujitsu, Infineon, NXP, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments.

Green Hills Software, celebrating its 30-year anniversary, made a number of announcements at the show. The company revealed that its MULTI IDE had been selected by Nintendo for distribution among its developers creating games for the upcoming Wii U gaming platform. GHS also announced that it had completed a CENELEC EN 50128 certification program for Bombardier Transportation, and that the Green Hills Compiler 2012 achieved record-breaking CoreMark scores on the Freescale Kinetis K60 90nm microcontroller.

In addition to its announcement with Express Logic regarding ThreadX-Lite, IAR Systems announced that IAR Embedded Workbench now supports the new ARM Cortex-M0+ core and Freescale’s recently announced Kinetis L series. IAR also disclosed that IAR Embedded Workbench had not only been selected by GainSpan for the development of its next WiFi chip, but that GainSpan has standardized the development and integration of MCU drivers for its Wi-Fi chips and modules on this tool chain.

Lauterbach announced support for the Freescale Qorivva MPC57xx and the STMicroelectronics SPC57x family of microcontrollers.

LDRA shared that LDRA Certification Services would be offering solutions targeting avionics (certification support for a variety of FAA/EASA standards) and medical devices (IEC 62304 and ISO 14971.) LDRA also announced the integration of Visure Solutions’ IRQA requirements engineering tools with LDRA’s TBmanager.

Logic PD introduced the DM3730 Torpedo + Wireless System on Module (SOM), which offers both high performance and low power consumption on an extremely small (less than one square inch) board. This SOM is ideal for small form-factor wireless/handheld devices that require long battery life and high performance.

LynuxWorks announced the availability of its board support package (BSP) and corresponding DO-178B level C artifacts for the Curtiss-Wright SVME/DMV-183 rugged single-board computer. This BSP is part of the latest release of LynxOS-178.

McObject announced a reseller agreement for eXtremeDB with Spreadbrokers, a UK-based company specializing in low-latency technology in the financial sector.

Mentor Graphics detailed the release of its next-generation Mentor Embedded Linux Platform, which is designed to simplify Linux development through its support of the Yocto Project.

Microchip Technology announced MPLAB XC, a simplified line of C compilers for PIC microcontrollers and dsPIC digital signal controllers. MPLAB XC features three optimization levels – Free, Standard, and Pro – each with differing feature sets and price points.

Synopsys released Virtualizer Development Kits (VDKs) to accelerate software development for ARM big.LITTLE processing. This solution can help shorten time to market by enabling engineers to optimize their designs for performance and energy efficiency prior to board availability.

TimeSys Corporation announced expanded support for Freescale i.MX 6 processors, with a LinuxLink framework now available for Boundary Devices’ Nitrogen6X development kit – a low-cost solution that enables developers to evaluate the i.MX 6 processor before committing to a design.

Viosoft Corporation demonstrated the next generation of its Arriba for Android development platform, which now features the ability to debug Android over a wireless connection regardless of the underlying hardware architecture.

Wind River, together with Digi International, announced the new M2M Solution Builder kit – a collaboration to deliver a new family of cloud-connected wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions. These kits will include a combination of hardware, software, cloud connectivity (through the iDigi Device Cloud) and development services.

Other leading embedded systems exhibitors included, aicas, AMD, Arium, ARM, CMX Systems, EBSnet, eCosCentric, Electric Cloud, element14, eSOL, Freescale, IBM, Klocwork, Macraigor Systems, MathWorks, McAfee, Micrium, MKS/PTC, National Instruments, Parasoft, Perforce Software, SEGGER Microcontroller, Texas Instruments, Vector Fabrics, Vector Software, and many, many others.

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