Wind River Blog Network

Wind River Hypervisor 1.1

2010-02-09T09:10:26-08:00

By Mark Hermeling

As you would expect from a market leader like Wind River, we have been busy, extremely busy. Busy with talking to customers and helping them define how they plan to adopt multicore and virtualization in their roadmaps, but also busy with progressing our own roadmap.

Today we are announcing Wind River Hypervisor 1.1, with added support for the Intel Nehalem micro architecture (i5, i7 and Xeon 55xx), support for VxWorks 6.8 and Wind River Linux 3.0.2, additional inter-board communication facilities and On-Chip Debugging Support. The official press release is here.

The Multicore Transition: Tools are Key to Success

2010-02-02T11:46:50-08:00

By Bill Graham

We just announced a new release of our state of the art tools which includes an update to Workbench and Workbench OCD version 3.2, plus our Wind River Compiler suite (also known as the Diab compiler). This news reminded me of my days as a product manager for tools software and the need to talk about the importance of tools to project success.

For embedded software companies where so much emphasis is given to supported hardware, operating systems and middleware technologies, tools can get ignored in the fray.

Blog Article: Boundaries are Disappearing

2010-02-01T17:42:00-08:00

By Mark Hermeling

Ok, so I got a little bit of flak verbally, through email and Skype for unilaterally declaring 2010 the year of embedded virtualization. People seem to agree though, it is a hot technology, and a technology that can change the way that we develop embedded systems.

This post by George Zimmerman talks about how integration of technologies leads to inflection points in the adoption of new technology.

Stark Bloggin' Mad!

2010-02-01T14:19:25-08:00

By Emeka Nwafor

Wow!!! OK, so how is it that a few innocent tweets about the iPad gets me embroiled in a little Twitter / blogosphere skirmish with a colleague? Who would have thunk it? It's not just Schaefer, almost everyone seems to have formulated an opinion or a prediction about the future of mobile computing.

Following last week's announcement of the Apple iPad there has been an impressive flood of blogs, microblogs, and YouTube from pundits and pranksters, alike. I don't recall a technology preview that had as much publicly generated hype and excitement as the iPad announcement.

2010 Is The Year Of Embedded Virtualization

2010-01-31T10:17:00-08:00

By Mark Hermeling

I believe that 2010 will be the year of embedded virtualization, all the signs point in the right direction. It always takes a while for new technology to grab the imagination of embedded device developers.

Embedded developers are traditionally a conservative bunch, however, the benefits of virtualization can not be ignored, even by them.

Quit Bugging Me: Revalidated

2010-01-26T14:20:14-08:00

By Mike Deliman

One day, I get this phone call. "We're working with the system, we see the calls that update the exception handlers early on - connecting the clock routines, etc. Then not very much farther on we see the system has run past where tasking should be running but it's not.

When we check, we're not getting any clock interrupts, and the clock exception handler isn't there any more. How could the system do that? Is there any way the OS could remove it's clock connections?"

A Decade at Wind River

2010-01-25T13:45:29-08:00

By Paul Parkinson

On Wednesday, it will be exactly ten years since I joined Wind River.

I was thinking about this on my flight to San Francisco on Saturday, and as well as wondering how I long I've spent watching the VxWorks boot loader counting down to zero on the serial console over the years, I was also reminiscing about my early days with the company.

Systems Huge and Really Tiny

2010-01-22T15:13:06-08:00

By Bill Graham

"Diverse" is certainly as word that applies to embedded systems. In fact, it's difficult to really define embedded systems because they can be a windshield wiper controller, a home theater remote control or an Internet backbone switch that handles gigabytes of data per second. VxWorks has been used in all of these types of systems and can do this because it offers flexible solutions for our customers.

As systems become larger and more complex customers are usually seeking more options such as middleware for networking or graphics. As systems get smaller, however, customers are usually seeking less options and the ability to configure systems exactly the way they want.

It's All About the Evidence

2010-01-20T13:42:40-08:00

By Bill Graham

An important distinction that gets drilled into people new to safety critical systems and certification of said systems is the difference between "certified" and "certification evidence." When certifying a safety critical system to a very strict standard such as DO-178B, the system as a whole is certified not individual components such as operating systems or middleware.

Verification and validation of safety critical systems is very expensive and time consuming. However, to greatly reduce the burden of testing and test reporting, the use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software is required.

Do You Design Flight Software?

2010-01-15T14:30:00-08:00

By Mike Deliman

Normally I don't like this blog to sound like a marketing microphone, BUT... once in a while something comes along that's Worth It. I'll keep it short and sweet.

Next month, Larry Kinnan will be running a web presentation about how VxWorks 653 OS is used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Click here for more information.