Wind River Blog Network

The Future of the World ‘Wired’ Mind?

2012-02-06T10:06:47-08:00

By Pete MacKay

I never thought neurophysiology could be made so interesting – or blended with philosophy for that matter – but this is what author Michael Chorost does in his book World Wide Mind. Recently one of our Project Managers forwarded a link to an interesting PBS News Hour piece pondering “Will ‘Bionic Bodies’ Offer High-Tech Hope to the Disabled?”. The clip covered the exoskeleton from Berkeley Bionics, coincidentally featuring John Fogelin, former CTO of Wind River and an original author of the VxWorks RTOS. It also featured one of my personal heroes, Dean Kamen, as well as an interview with writer and cochlear implant recipient Chorost, who discussed his latest book, World Wide Mind.

Beyond the Smart Grid: Intelligent Energy

2012-02-03T11:18:51-08:00

By Jeff Fortin

This past week I was at DistribuTECH 2012 and was able to see firsthand how companies supplying to the energy market are responding to Smart Grid requirements and adapting to the market needs that the Smart Grid is creating. There was a diverse array of companies in attendance demonstrating their interpretation of the future of energy -- from ABB, a veteran to the energy market, to Ceiva, who has developed an innovative approach to home energy management using their familiar electronic picture frame technology.

Wind River demonstrated a model of a wind turbine system that was controlled by the Bachmann M1 Controller System. The M1 Controller System includes modules for Digital and Analog I/O, Network Connectivity, Fieldbuses, Safety, and a Processor Module. The Bachmann M1 Processor Module provides a robust, scalable and flexible solution for applications ranging from classical PLCs to enabling connectivity to the IT cloud, and leverages a range of Intel processors and runs Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS. By combining the processing suite offered by Intel and Wind River, the M1 can be used in applications requiring any combination of PLCs, motion controllers, connectivity and data management. The M1 is not limited to wind turbine applications -- it could be used in range of energy applications that require a safe, secure and reliable intelligent device.

Network Performance Front & Center Everywhere: How Will the Networking Industry Respond?

2012-01-31T13:48:33-08:00

By Jessica Schieve

The need for network performance rang loud and clear at CES 2012.

The way things are shaping up, the networking industry is in for an exciting 2012. Every year, in early January, the consumer electronics industry stages one of the biggest shows in the world, International CES held in Las Vegas. Given the largely consumer feel of the show, many of us in the networking and communications industries don’t typically focus major attention on the show but this year turned out to be a bit of an the exception. There were numerous products on display that are being designed for 3G and 4G networks and there was significant buzz around indications of what’s about to seriously impact our industry. Here are a few headlines that caught my eye:

Detecting security problems – using static analysis to catch them early and less expensively

2012-01-26T08:24:30-08:00

By Bill Graham

In my previous post I discussed the potential benefits in quality and costs that static analysis brings to software development. In addition to common coding errors, many of the bugs found by static analysis are potential security defects as well. Buffer overflow, OS command injection, unrestricted string format and integer overflows are among the top 25 most dangerous security coding defects (according to the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWS) from the MITRE organization). These types of defects are common in C and C++ and are dangerous to correct operation in general but also pose significant security threats – often because the right exploit can lead to arbitrary code execution on the target. Once an attacker can execute code on your device, they can gain complete control, which might include reflashing the firmware, installing malware or rewriting the command and control software.

Using Static Analysis to Improve Product Quality, Earlier and Cheaper

2012-01-24T08:04:33-08:00

By Bill Graham

Fixing bugs is expensive. Fixing bugs is more expensive the later you leave them, in fact, its been shown to cost a magnitude higher with each major phase of development. The famous defect cost chart from Capers Jones shows the cost of a bug going from $25 at the coding phase to $16,000 in development. Not only that, but most of the bugs are introduced into the system at this stage yet very little of them are found. Logic says we should fix them earlier to save money.

Making a Faulty Serial Port

2012-01-23T08:31:06-08:00

By Jakob Engblom

As noted before, one common use case for Simics is doing fault injection. Fault injection is typically added to an existing system without changing it, since the goal is to maintain a fundamentally fast simulator when not injecting faults. There are a range of mechanisms available in Simics to implement fault injection. This blog post will take a look at two such mechanisms and how they are used in the context of injecting faults on a serial port.

Android Security – making sense of all the choices

2012-01-19T15:44:14-08:00

By Chris Buerger

Last week’s public release of the Security Enhanced (SE) Android project and associated source code is hailed by many as an important foundational step to add a new set of options to create secure Android devices. While the recent release of the code base by the National Security Agency (NSA) is familiar territory for Android experts such as Wind River who have been designing and implementing comprehensive security layers to a wide spectrum of Android devices for a few years now, the portrayal of this development in the media as an all-encompassing security solution grossly oversimplifies the complex subject matter that Android security represents.

Simply speaking, compiling and flashing the SE Android code base on to your Nexus S will not make it completely 'secure.'

Wind River has been enabling Android devices for close to five years now. Based on that experience and over a decade of pioneering mobile Linux-based devices, four key security-related points stand out.

VxWorks Cert Now Supports ARM!

2012-01-16T00:00:00-08:00

By Alex Wilson

Aerospace and defense has relied on rugged embedded vehicle mounted computers for many years, but as devices become more mobile, and with increased demand to reduce SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power), ARM-based computers become an interesting alternative. Added to that is the wealth of functionality available in ARM devices that make it a good choice, not only to reduce SWaP in the core CPU, but to reduce overall chipset sizes to a single SoC.

If we look at an example of an ARM-based device, such as the TI OMAP3530, this is a perfect device with which to build a software defined radio for example. It has a high performance, low powered Cortex A8 Core, with numerous IO devices to help connectivity and display. Designed as a mobile device, for example, it supports Android -- and the OMAP3530 is also well suited to other areas of A&D such as soldier mounted systems, or remote sensors.

VxWorks Cert: Supporting Low Power Devices in Safety Critical Systems

2012-01-11T06:00:00-08:00

By Bill Graham

Embedded microprocessors are steadily progressing towards more performance while maintaining or decreasing power requirements (more succinctly, the performance per watt is getting better and better). High performance processors that decrease system power requirements are desired in safety critical systems just as they are in the general embedded marketplace. Our recent release of VxWorks Cert Platform adds support for ARM processors to our safety critical VxWorks platform which compliments our current support for Intel Atom processors, both of which are important platforms for high capable but low power consumption devices. Adding ARM to the supported list of architectures expands the application of the safety critical real-time operating system (RTOS) platform to new possibilities such as mobile, handheld and graphics-oriented devices.

Wind River Discusses Security and Safety Offerings with ICC Media

2012-01-10T08:53:41-08:00

By Amanda Lowe

At IPC/SPS/Drives in November, Alexander Damisch, Wind River's Director, Industrial Solutions, sat down for an interview with ICC Media to discuss our recent collaborations with Wurldtech and ISaGRAF.

Click on the video link below to learn more about the latest offerings.