On Target: Embedded Systems

Security ~ Does Perceived Importance Lead to Change?

As you can see from the statistics shown here collected in our 2011 Embedded System Engineering Survey, security is becoming top of mind at many engineering organizations. Not only are more and more devices becoming connected to each other and the enterprise over the embedded cloud, but their software functionality is representing more value to end users and, in many cases, its compromise or failure can result can significant financial liabilities for OEMs.

The larger question is what does this so called importance actually mean to embedded engineering organizations and does it translate to the implementation of development practices that can actually reduce risk?

Although we believe that the impact of security on embedded device development is still in a relatively nascent state, we do not want you to take this to mean that OEMs aren’t doing anything about it. Security requirements and mitigation processes are already well established within a number of embedded industries as well as within a number of individual engineering organizations. However, there is not much comfort in the fact that although 70% of developers say security is important to their current projects, only 35% of engineers are confident their projects satisfy security requirements. Additionally, while it is not shown on this chart, 25% of the engineers we surveyed reported that no proactive steps were being taken to actually limit the security issues.

So what can OEMs do? Embedded engineers can look to any number of solutions to help improve the status quo, whether it’s operating systems, hypervisors, semiconductor IP, or test tools among others.

Whereas there are a number of different technologies that can be used to help address or limit security issues, however - it is important to remember that there is no one silver bullet. In fact, we believe that the growing sophistication and complexity of embedded and mobile devices is making it increasingly critical for OEMs to look to use a range of the different available technologies as well as to institutionalize the supporting processes and best practices to ensure their efficacy. As a result, we recommend that the supplier community likewise works to not only drive awareness of their own solutions’ utility in addressing security issues, but also to maintain and or enhance their investments in partnerships and integrations intended to support security-focused initiatives.

VDC is investigating the trends around embedded security in even greater detail over the course of 2012. What do you think is the most important technological or business factor that OEMs should consider in order to improve the security of their next generation designs? 

DESIGN West Bulletin – Part 1, Best of Show!

VDC attended the 2012 DESIGN West/Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose from March 27^th through March 30^th and met with more than 30 companies to discuss product announcements and a variety of industry trends impacting the embedded market today. The conference was abuzz with many of the same topics that dominated embedded world earlier in the month, namely M2M, the Cloud, security, and Android. Be sure to visit the UBM site for complete details and other news items associated with the show.

 

THE "EMBEDDY" GOES TO:

VDC awards our embedded software best of show "Embeddy" award to GrammaTech for its CodeSonar visualization system, an offering designed to optimize the visual inspection and analysis of software through a sophisticated new interface for viewing the relationships between software program elements. Built to handle very large code bases, we believe this product represents a unique solution that has the ability to materially impact the way developers test and analyze their source code. CodeSonar visualization runs through a browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome. An early release version was available to customers as of Tuesday, March 27^th.

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Mosaic Software showed off its Mosaic Qt Developer Suite, which provides Qt application programmers with commonly needed widgets in a user-friendly library API. Among the more intriguing components of this suite is the Mosaic Graph widget, which enables 2D, 3D, and polar graphing of mathematical equations. 

 

ALSO NOTEWORTHY

Enea officially joined the Linux party with its own Enea Linux offering announced on Tuesday. This represents a bit of a change in strategy for Enea, which had previously supported embedded Linux development through its services arm and reseller agreements with Linux vendors such as TimeSys. Enea Linux – which is intended to target next-generation networking infrastructure equipment – is a Yocto-based distribution available with customized services and support. Enea also launched a range of solutions aimed at enabling real-time characteristics in Linux-based solutions. The company commemorated the event with a very talented dancing penguin in its booth!

 

 

Please visit this blog early next week for a complete wrap-up of all of VDC’s meetings and associated announcements.

 

 

ABOUT VDC RESEARCH GROUP

VDC Research Group (VDC) provides market research and advisory services to the world's top technology executives. Our clients rely on us to provide actionable insights to support their most important strategic decisions. The firm is organized around four practices, each with its own focused area of coverage including: automatic identification and data collection, embedded hardware, embedded software and enterprise mobility.

Our market research is the basis for the many ways that VDC can help our clients to grow their business. We offer a range of services designed to meet their specific corporate development, opportunity assessment and lead generation needs. Founded in 1971, the firm is located in the Boston area. Please visit our Web site at www.vdcresearch.com to learn more.

VDC has been providing embedded systems market intelligence for over 20 years.

VDC is Attending DESIGN (formerly known as ESC) West!

Contact us ASAP to schedule a meeting!

VDC will be attending the conference from Tuesday March 27 through Thursday March 29th and will be presenting our 8th annual Embeddy Awards. The winners will be announced live following Thursday's morning keynote session. 

So how can your company win the Embeddy award?

To be considered, you must schedule a meeting with VDC to discuss the announcement that you are making at the show. You can arrange a meeting time with VDC by doing one of the following:

For Software and Tools related meetings

Contact Jared Weiner, Analyst, Embedded Software & Tools Practice, VDC Research Group at: jweiner@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x143.

For Hardware related meetings

Contact David Laing, Senior Analyst, Embedded Hardware & Systems Practice, VDC Research Group at: dlaing@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x146.
 
Haven't decided if you're attending DESIGN West yet?

Please check out the DESIGN West website for more information on the conference program as well as information on all of the companies that will be exhibiting. You can also click here to register.

We look forward to seeing you at the show!

embedded world Bulletin – February/March 2012

VDC attended the 2012 embedded world Exhibition & Conference in Nuremberg, Germany February 28^th through March 1^st. This is the third time VDC Research has attended embedded world and, according to the show closing report, there were 872 international exhibiting companies, more than 20,000 trade visitors, and over 1,000 engineering students at the STUDENT DAY event on Thursday. These figures represent another year of record numbers of exhibitors and visitors participating in the conference.

The conference once again offered a buzz of excitement and interest, particularly around hot topics such as intelligent devices, M2M, and “the Internet of things.”  VDC hopes (and expects) that this conference’s momentum will carry over to the upcoming Design West Conference and spell continued success for the embedded industry at large as it continues its recovery and emergence from the global recession.

The complete press release and more information & downloads for embedded world can be found here.

 

BEST OF SHOW

 

VDC awards our embedded software best of show to Digi International for its Digi Application Development Kit for Android, a unique hardware and software solution for engineers seeking to deploy Android in their embedded designs. Digi’s development kit includes a complete Eclipse-based development environment for use on both Linux and Windows workstation, BSP for the ConnectCore Wi-i.MX53 and Wi-i.MX51 families, Android APIs extensions for embedded interfaces not supported natively by Android, samples demonstrating how to access the ConnectCore hardware, and features the iDigi Device Cloud for creating smart connected devices. The Digi Application Development Kit for Android – which ships with a 7” LCD touchscreen and is ready to use out of the box – is available now for $499.

 

HONORABLE MENTION

ARM unveiled the ARM Energy Probe – used by the ARM Streamline Performance Analyzer and based on the ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5) toolchain – which is aimed at enabling energy-efficient software optimization across the Linux and Android communities. 

 

WALKING THE FLOOR

AdaCore announced a pair of product releases at the conference, including GNAT Pro 7.0 – a revision to its flagship development environment product that implements upcoming revisions to the Ada language and also includes AdaCore’s new testing tool, GNATtest. AdaCore’s second product update was around CodePeer 2.1, the company’s static analysis tool.

Leading static analysis tool vendor Coverity announced a key design win, revealing that Dräger Medical GmbH had selected Coverity Static Analysis as its development testing solution.

Esterel Technologies announced the availability of SCADE 6.3, which features a variety of usability enhancements and also introduces the SCADE Suite Timing and Stack Optimizers module and an ADA code generator.

ETAS released EHOOKS V2.0, a software tool that enables the insertion of hooks directly into ECU software. New in version 2.0 is a Simulink Integration Package that simplifies the integration of Simulink models for on-target bypass.

In addition to a presentation given by VP of Engineering Paul Anderson – “Hazards of Multi-core Software: Data Races are Never Harmless” – GrammaTech demo’d CodeSonar 3.7, the latest release of its static analysis solution which now features a new analysis engine that finds concurrency problems in multicore and multi-threaded code.

Green Hills Software, in conjunction with Freescale Semiconductor, announced an aligned roadmap between Freescale’s MPC57xx family of Qorivva automotive microcontrollers and Green Hills’ MULTI multicore debugger, optimizing controller, TimeMachine suite, and processor probes. Green Hills also shared a key design win, announcing that General Dynamics UK had selected the INTEGRITY RTOS as the operating system within all mission-critical computers of the Scout Specialist Vehicles programme. Green Hills’ MULTI IDE was also selected for this project.

LDRA and MathWorks announced the extended integration of the LDRA tool suite with MathWorks Simulink modeling tools.

QNX Software Systems unveiled the QNX Neutrino RTOS for medical devices at the show, which offers compliance with the IEC 62304 medical device standard for software lifecycle processes. QNX’s expanded offerings for medical devices also include on-site audits, proven-in-use data, training courses, and other professional services. QNX also announced partnerships with LS Research and Silex Technology around the development and co-marketing of wireless connectivity solutions for embedded systems using QNX’s Neutrino RTOS.

Real-Time Systems, a leader in embedded virtualization and real-time hypervisor technology, announced the latest release of its RTS Hypervisor.  RTS Hypervisor v3.1 features a variety of upgrades and enhancements. Additionally, Real-Time Systems made public a distribution agreement for the RTS Hypervisor with Kontron, a leading vendor of embedded computing modules, boards, and systems. Under this agreement, customers can now purchase embedded hardware preconfigured with the RTS Hypervisor and operating system licenses from a single source.

SYSGO unveiled version 3.3 of its flagship PikeOS real-time operating system, which extends SMP and Linux support to new multicore architectures and includes a variety of other enhancements targeting safe and secure virtualization.

TenAsys Corporation, another leading provider of embedded virtualization software, announced that shipments of the INtime Distributed RTOS will begin in March. TenAsys also announced the extension of its collaboration efforts with Unified Automation GmbH to add OPC UA server support to the INtime RTOS product line.

Vector Software released VectorCAST 6.0. This leading automated testing and validation tool for safety-critical applications is now able to be configured for specific industry standards such as DO-178B/C for avionics, ISO 26262 for automotive, EN-51208 for railway, and others.

Visure Solutions announced that it had integrated test management into its IRQA requirements engineering solution, in order to provide end-to-end traceability and validation for regulatory compliance.

Other leading embedded systems exhibitors included, aicas, dSPACE, Dassault Systemes, Elektrobit, Enea, Express Logic, HP, IBM Rational, IAR Systems, Intel, Klocwork, Kontron, KW-Software, Lauterbach, LynuxWorks, MathWorks, Mentor Graphics, Micrium, Microsoft, Polarion, QA Systems, Quadros, Red Lizard Software, Texas Instruments, Vector Informatik, Willert Software Tools, Wind River, and many, many others.

ABOUT VDC RESEARCH GROUP

VDC Research Group (VDC) provides market research and advisory services to the world's top technology executives. Our clients rely on us to provide actionable insights to support their most important strategic decisions. The firm is organized around four practices, each with its own focused area of coverage including: automatic identification and data collection, embedded hardware, embedded software and enterprise mobility.

Our market research is the basis for the many ways that VDC can help our clients to grow their business. We offer a range of services designed to meet their specific corporate development, opportunity assessment and lead generation needs. Founded in 1971, the firm is located in the Boston area. Please visit our Web site at www.vdcresearch.com to learn more.

VDC has been providing embedded systems market intelligence for over 20 years.

Can Connected Cars Drive Automotive Ecosystem Evolution?

While we were at Embedded World last week, Intel announced two initiatives focused on the “connected car” concept:

• The opening of a new product development center in Germany and launch of a related academic program
• The launch of a $100 million Intel Capital Connected Car Fund, which “will invest in hardware, software and services companies that are developing leading-edge ingredient technology and platform capabilities that support Intel’s focus areas in automotive technology innovation”

Within today’s automobile, the channels for end vehicle differentiation are changing. Now when a prospective buyers steps into the vehicle, the first thing most people look at and play with is not the seat or the steering wheel but the in vehicle infotainment systems. As you would expect, this has quickly translated to increased R&D investment from the OEMs and infotainment systems are now emerging as platforms for personalization and driver customization through downloadable content.

This new venue for product extensions and value added services is clearly appealing to both OEMs, consumers, as well as other ecosystem constituents. However, there is obviously a significantly different additional dynamic within the automotive sector, as compared to say that for mobile phones, because of the substantial number of safety-critical subsystems for which the failure could lead to operator injury or even loss of life.

As such, automotive OEMs are now being forced to look for new ways to enable this connectivity, but doing so in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the security of the entire systems. Additionally, the growing amount of electronic functionality and increasing number and heterogeneity of subsystems in today's automobiles is already complicating the development process in the sector. Now many of these OEMs are actually reevaluating a technology that could help them address both of these issues – which is virtualization.

Not only does this provide a mechanism for consolidating the number of subsystems as a means to control BOM costs, but it can also afford OEMs the ability to securely run multiple OSs and subsystems over the same piece of silicon. As you can see from these findings from our recent research, more and more automotive engineers report that they are using or expect to use virtualization in their current solution.

What is especially interesting here is that, going back two or three years, I had a number of conversations with automotive manufacturers to support a research project that I was working on at the time. When the topic of virtualization came up, the OEMs were very quick to dismiss it as not appropriate for automotive designs. Clearly, their opinions have now changed, but this past experience leads me to another important question:

Given what is rapidly becoming a consumerization of the automotive industry, can the existing ecosystem with that automotive culture of conservatism support a consumer electronic-like velocity of change?

Or will the increasing level system connectivity provide a new venue for non-automotive OEMs (such as Apple or HTC) to swoop in and capture the next level of in vehicle experience differentiation?

Engineer Experience with More Complex Architectures

Every year VDC conducts an extensive worldwide survey of embedded engineers and their development projects to better understand engineering requirements, preferences, and trends. This information is available from VDC in unique cross tabbed reports to offer readers a detailed, in-depth, view of engineers in the development project trenches.

Quite often we receive requests from suppliers within the embedded software and hardware community around the use of multicore and multiprocessing architectures and embedded engineer experience working with these complex architectures within their development projects. Based on survey responses, engineers continue to expect migration from single processor designs for future projects to multicore or a combination of multiprocessing and multicore architectures.

While the initial uptake of multicore has been slow, VDC has observed a steady increase in the presence of multicore in embedded development projects in recent years. As a result, the level of experience with multicore and/or multiprocessing designs is increasing year over year; however, it varies by the types of applications under development – specifically those whose complex designs necessitate high performance, low power consumption, and a small footprint.

How does your level of experience with use of complex architectures stack up? Let us know through your feedback.

Our　published report, Vertical Markets, from Track 2　of VDC's 2011 Embedded Software Market Intelligence Service provides additional statistical insight and analysis around this and other trends affecting embedded system development.　 Click here for additional information and access to a free executive brief highlighting other key findings from our research.