On Target: Embedded Systems

Linux FUD from the BSD Camp

BSD supplier Wasabi Systems is offering a new take on Linux FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) this time it is Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

The gist is this:

Effectively, executives are lying to their shareholders if they do not disclose, or do not know, that the company doesn’t have a valid license for software it is claiming as an
owned asset. Unlike a mere GPL violation, this misrepresentation is a crime, and carries
criminal penalties.

Wasabi's conclusions include the following:

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act radically changes the risk portfolio for companies using Linux as a
development platform. Violations of the Linux license, and even the common practice of
leaving GPL compliance to engineers, are, we believe, violations of federal law. Companies
thus face the choice of complying fully with the GPL (despite the loss of intellectual property
and the intrusiveness of legal review), risking federal sanction, or seeking alternatives to
embedded Linux (which may include proprietary systems, or open source products governed
by different licenses, such as the BSD license). Violating the GPL, for public companies and
those which seek to become public, is now a federal crime.

Wasabi has another White Paper out there on this topic and it has this interesting paragraph:

The real problem here is that the GPL was created by the Free Software Foundation with an
ideological, not a commercial, aim in mind. Is it any surprise that a proprietary software company runs into legal issues when it uses the license of the "Free Software Foundation"?

and this line as well,

Unless embedded Linux users are content to release all their code, they are wise to look for insurance.

Or use BSD perhaps?

We are not sure how much fire is here with this line of attack but the documents are worth a look.

Microsoft is Touting Real Time Capabilities of CE

We don't know if you have seen the add that Microsoft is running in recent issues of EE Times and perhaps other places, but it is worth a look. It features an R&D manager from Chaveriat Robotique and one of their robotic arms that run CE. The quote from the R&D manager is "We chose Windows CE because it offers real-time and graphics at the right price."

In addition there is an article we saw yesterday on eetimes.com on real time and CE 4.2.

Also, a November 2005 article entitled "Windows CE 5.0 for real-time systems" appearing in Embedded Computing Design. The author was Mike Hall one of Microsoft's technical point people for Windows Embedded.

Interestingly, a quick Google search on Win CE unrelated to this article produced a Microsoft ad on the side. The first keyword in the ad was "RTOS"

This might be trend to keep an eye on. It seems like the most activity directed at touting Windows CE real-time capabilities since the 3.0 release when the company was using supporting materials from Siemens.

Windows CE is in a wide variety of devices. Probably a more varied collection than most industry observers would give them credit for supporting. Many don't have the Windows logo, some are headless and some would even be the types of devices that traditional RTOS players would like to be in. Microsoft will be in increasing competition with the traditional OS players in key markets like automotive, consumer devices and industrial automation.

More new products Trolltech

We don't want this to be a collection of new product announcements but we will try and highlight some of the more important ones like this one from Trolltech.

Trolltech is a key enabler of Linux, especially in mobile phones. The company has a major presence in Asia, with China likely being its top market. No surprise really given the strength of Linux in the mobile handset market there.

This product update would typically support devices other than handsets, but demonstrates the product range from desktops to traditional embedded devices to mobile devices. Part of the release is inserted below:

Qtopia Core: Development Platform for Single-Application Products
Qtopia Core as a stand-alone technology is a robust, customizable development platform for creating single-application devices powered by embedded Linux. Designed for high value applications, it includes a comprehensive set of libraries and graphical tools to help organizations quickly and cost-effectively create embedded Linux-based products.

Qtopia Core supports the same APIs as Qt 4 – bringing the benefits of Trolltech’s proven desktop software to developers of a broad range of embedded Linux equipment. It includes all the latest Qt features such as extended support for heavy-duty graphics, more internationalization with right to left text, and better tools for highly productive development.

Qtopia Core customers will also reap the benefits of Qt’s worldwide developer community.

Trolltech plans to expand the Qtopia 4 Series in the coming months to address a broader range of embedded Linux opportunities. Anticipated products in the Series will include:

Qtopia Platform: Qtopia Core with application management and user interface capabilities, enabling embedded Linux development for consumer electronics and other advanced, multi-application products.

Qtopia Profiles: Qtopia Platform with key enablers for embedded Linux development aimed at specific vertical markets.

Qtopia Editions: Solutions aimed at targeted product segments.

The Qtopia Series today features Qtopia Core 4, Qtopia Phone Edition and Qtopia PDA Edition

New Products from GHS and MG/ATI

Two new products announced today:

Green Hills Software, Inc., today announced the immediate availability of a complete port of its INTEGRITY real-time operating system to the BAE Systems’ RAD750 radiation hardened PowerPC Processor and CompactPCI single board computer.
The RAD750 is a licensed radiation hardened version of the IBM PowerPC 750 and is the follow-on to BAE System’s RAD6000 family. The RAD750 architecture supports 260 MIPS operating at 132 MHz.

Accelerated Technology, a MentorGraphics division, today announced the availability of the Nucleus Cipher Accelerator software, a plug-in to the Nucleus Cipher Suite that adds support for hardware encryption acceleration. The software allows designers to boost the performance of their security applications, resulting in increased data throughput and lower processor utilization. The Nucleus Cipher Accelerator initially supports the Freescale Semiconductor ColdFire MCF5235, MCF5271, MCF5275, MCF547x, MCF548x and PowerPC MPC8272 processors.

More on US competitiveness

Two articles appeared over the last couple of days on US competitiveness. The first reports a speech by former Speaker of House Newt Gingrich and the second is Jim Turley throwing a cold bucket of water on the whole lack of engineers in the US argument. See the On Target: Embedded Systems posts from last month on this topic. I have included Newt’s recommendations below.

Like most of the recommendations from politicians it reminds me of the Monty Python sketch called "How to do it." Which goes something like this:

"But first, here's Jackie to tell you all how to rid the world of all known diseases."
"Well, first of all, become a doctor and discover a marvelous cure for something, so there'll never be any diseases ever again."
"Thanks, Jackie. Great idea."

Anyway there are recommendations from an embedded.com article; the first couple are even possible to implement:

• Create a system of civil justice to reduce the burden of lawsuits and give incentives to young people to go into professions other than the law.
• Dramatically simplify the tax code to favor savings, entrepreneurship, investment and constant modernization of equipment and technology.
• Make math and science learning equal to any in the world and educate enough young Americans in science to enable the United States to compete successfully with other well-educated societies.
• Invest in the potential scientific breakthroughs in energy, space and the environment.
• Create, via high tech, "a 21st century intelligent health system" that would improve the health of the populace while dramatically lowering health care costs and making American health care a value export and source of revenue.

These recommendations are applicable to any country thinking about is place in the World during the second half or so of this century.

Express Logic Signs Datang Mobile to License

RTOS supplier Express Logic has signed Datang Mobile to a license for ThreadX. VDC believes that this is a Datang phone or reference design. In addition, the companies are also negotiating for Datang to bundle and distribute ThreadX with a mobile phone SoC. ThreadX will support the RF capabilities of the phone/chip.

While this is not Express Logic's first handset deal, it may be its most important. Datang has the potential to be a prime mover behind TD-SCDMA (Time Division - Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), the Chinese developed 3G protocol, and having ThreadX bundled in could be an important win for the San Diego-based Express Logic.

RTOS support for RF communications on handsets has largely been based on in-house OSs with commercial vendors like, Mentor Graphic/ATI and ENEA also capturing a large part of the market.
ThreadX was probably appealing to Datang for its small footprint, reliability and royalty-free business model. For SoC vendors, not adding on high prices for bundled software or eating a portion of the software bill of material themselves makes their products more competitive and enhances the bottom line.

Outsourcing Trends: Software Development

Outsourced manufacturing is the most common type of third party service used in the development/production of embedded devices. However, the use of third party services in the hardware and software development process isn't far behind.

 

Research from VDC's recently published Market Statistics report indicates that in the case of outsourced manufacturing, the goal tends to be to reduce costs. However, with hardware and software development, it is more often the demand for additional development resources or the need for assistance in an area that is outside a development team's core competence that drives the demand for third party services.

High percentages of embedded projects still run behind schedule

The latest findings from VDC's 2005 Volume VIII: Embedded Systems Market Statistics report, show that nearly 40% of embedded development projects run behind schedule. In fact, over 80% of the projects running behind schedule are at least 2 months late.

 

While the percentage of late projects is substantial, it's an improvement from previous years in which VDC research has indicated that a majority of projects were running late. The medical, military/aerospace, and industrial automation industries had the highest percentage of late projects, while the retail automation and consumer electronics markets had fewer late projects on average.

VDC Proprietary Operating Systems Report Highlights

Some interesting information from VDC’s recently completed 2005 Embedded Software Strategic Market Intelligence Program - Volume VII: Proprietary Operating Systems:

VDC’s developer survey found that 37.1% of the respondents use a non-commercial OS as part of their device development. This represents an ongoing migration for this population of developers, from 43.1% in 2001. The development and use of non-commercial OSs is a result of an era when developers had a lot of restrictions that included expensive hardware and limited and expensive memory.

 

Developers cite various reasons for the continued use of non-commercial OSs ranging from technical specifications to development and production costs. Considering these issues, some developers just do not see a compelling reason to adopt a commercial OS solution. It may be that the additional features offered by a commercial OS are just not required and don’t outweigh the additional resources (i.e., memory, etc.) that would need to be included or would exact performance penalties. In many cases, the needs of their application are extremely specific and the use of a non-commercial OS gives developers the ability to customize their environment to match their exact needs.

As customers demand smarter, more controllable devices, developers will look to increase software functionality. Adding new features to products increases the complexity of non-commercial OS software. Non-commercial OS users will look to switch to commercial OSs where this added functionality is available and allow developers to concentrate on their core competencies of developing discriminating features that will be attractive to the end user, rather than on software technologies that are transparent to the end user.

 

VDC expects the population of developers using a non-commercial OS – either proprietary or no formal OS – will decline in the future as networking, increasingly complex software, and advancing hardware will require commercial OSs. However, VDC expects the use of open source/free operating systems as a migration path to increase as technologies such as Linux mature and where there is already a growing interest by embedded software developers for its use.

For more information on the changes at MontaVista

LinuxDevices has done some additional reporting on the shake up at MontaVista (see our post below). Check it out here.