On Target: Embedded Systems

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

AdaCore, a supplier of Ada development tools and support services, announced a merger with SofCheck, Inc., a Lexington, Massachusetts-based automated software quality (ASQ) company.
http://www.adacore.com/2012/01/10/adacore-sofcheck-merge/

Atego™, a software tools and professional services supplier, for complex, mission- and safety-critical systems and software engineering announced that it has secured an additional, multi-million dollar equity investment.
http://www.atego.com/pressreleases/pressitem/atego-secures-major-multi-million-dollar-equity-investment

Cavium, Inc. announced a technology and marketing collaboration with Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) to offer Intel® WiDi-based products designed to enable superior wireless display consumer experience.
http://www.cavium.com/newsevents_Cavium_Collaborate_Intel.html

Coverity announced record growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, achieving the highest Q1 bookings, revenues and new customer accounts in the company's history as a result of rapid market adoption of development testing.
http://www.coverity.com/html/press/coverity-marks-record-first-quarter.html

DDC-I, a supplier of software and professional services for mission- and safety-critical applications, announced the availability of the Certifiable Fast File System (CFFS) for DDC-I’s Deos™ safety-critical real-time operating system (RTOS).
http://www.ddci.com/displayNews.php?fn=news__Deos-CFFS_013012_release.php

Enea announced that the Enea Bare Metal Performance (BMP) Tools will now support Cavium OCTEON® multicore processors.
http://www.enea.com/Corporate/Press/Press-releases/Press-release/?item=631827

Express Logic, Inc., a supplier of royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS) and PolyCore Software, Inc. (PSI), a supplier of multicore communications software solutions, announced extended cooperation to increase support of multicore platforms.
http://rtos.com/news/detail/polycore_software_and_express_logic_expand_cooperation_to_ease_multico/

Freescale i.MX Processors Build Market Momentum in Fast-Growing Automotive Infotainment and Telematics Markets
http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1646370&highlight=

Green Hills Software announced a major new release of its flagship INTEGRITY real-time operating system.
http://www.ghs.com/news/20120104_INTEGRITY_11.html

IAR Systems® announced that its embedded software development toolchain IAR Embedded Workbench® now provides support for the new XMC4500 microcontrollers from Infineon Technologies, including examples for the modular Hexagon Development Kit.
http://www.iar.com/en/About/Pressroom/Press-releases/2012/1/IAR-Systems-supports-the-Infineon-XMC4500-high-performance-microcontrollers-for-energy-efficient-industrial-applications/

IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire Worklight, a privately held Israeli-based provider of mobile software for smartphones and tablets.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/36660.wss

Intel Corporation reported full-year revenue of $54 billion, operating income of $17.5 billion, net income of $12.9 billion and EPS of $2.39 -- all records.
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2012/01/19/intel-reports-record-year-54-billion-in-annual-revenue-up-24-percent-239-in-annual-eps-up-19-percent

Klocwork Inc, a provider of source code analysis solutions for improving embedded software security and reliability, announced it closed 2011 with the highest bookings and revenue in the company's history.
http://www.klocwork.com/news/press-releases/releases/2012/PR-2012_01_11-Klocwork-Closes-Record-Fiscal-Year-In-2011.php

Lauterbach, a manufacturer of microprocessor development tools, launched support for the new 32-Bit XMC4000 microcontroller family of Infineon Technologies, which is based on the ARM® Cortex™ -M4 processor.
http://www.lauterbach.com/frames.html?home.html

LDRA has extended the LDRA tool suite to support direct integration with Altera’s Embedded Design Suite (EDS) for Nios II soft core processors.
http://www.ldra.com/news.asp

LynuxWorks announced that the Mission Systems and Sensors Division (MS2) of Lockheed Martin in Owego, NY, has selected the LynxOS® real-time operating system (RTOS) and Luminosity Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for use in conjunction with the United Kingdom (UK) Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).
http://www.lynuxworks.com/corporate/press/2012/awacs.php

MathWorks announced that DOCOMO Beijing Communications Laboratories Co., Ltd. (DOCOMO Beijing Labs) has adopted MATLAB to develop and verify algorithms for the development of new physical layer mobile communications technologies for advanced standards such as LTE-A.
http://www.mathworks.com/company/pressroom/DOCOMO-Beijing-Labs-Reduces-Development-Time-of-Mobile-Communications-Technology-by-50-Percent-with-MATLAB.html

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) announced the integration of Ecrio’s industry-leading IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Device Software with its flagship Nucleus® Real Time Operating System (RTOS).
http://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/news/mentor-ecrio-nucleus-lte-ims-mobile-platform

Microchip Technology Inc., a provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions, today announced a 25% performance increase on its dsPIC33F “GS” series of Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs) for Switch Mode Power Supplies (SMPSs).
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/press-release/microchip-announces-performanc.html

National Instruments today announced early access support for testing next-generation 802.11ac WLAN chipsets and devices.
http://digital.ni.com/worldwide/bwcontent.nsf/5076c193a6bfa57486256a7000512ca4/1d32cf21fe62097a8625798f0076b9da?OpenDocument

QNX Software Systems Limited, a supplier of software platforms for the in-car infotainment and telematics market, has won a Best of CES Award, in the Car Tech category, for its recently announced QNX CAR™ 2 application platform.
http://www.qnx.com/news/pr_4854_1.html

Synopsys, Inc. announced  that it has closed the acquisition of ExpertIO, Inc., a leading independent provider of verification IP (VIP) for industry standard protocols. http://synopsys.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=992

SYSGO, a supplier of embedded software solutions for the world’s most demanding safety and security applications, announced that the incoming orders rose by 105% in 2011 compared to 2010.
http://www.sysgo.com/news-events/press/press/details/article/sysgos-incoming-orders-increased-over-100-in-2011/

Wind River, a world leader in embedded and mobile software, today announced it has extended its safety critical systems product capabilities to support complete RTCA DO-178C certification evidence as a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solution.
http://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=10121

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.

Is Android Coming to a Secure Device Near You?

What Happened?

In case you missed it, the National Security Agency (NSA) announced last week the initial public release of a security-enhanced (SE) version of Android based on SE Linux. As stated by the NSA, the primary objective of SE Android is to “identify and address critical gaps in the security of Android.” The enhanced security features of SE Android are designed prevent malicious attacks by restricting the permissions of Android applications (superseding user-approved settings) while also isolating individual apps from each other.

VDC’s View

The openness of Android has been widely regarded as both a blessing and a curse during the platform’s first few years of relevance in the mobile device market, leading to seemingly equal parts innovation and fragmentation. With regard to apps, this openness allows independent developers (and hackers) to create apps that have access to a variety of internal device features, such as Bluetooth, network communication, personal information, storage, system tools, and more. While this has certainly been beneficial toward the creation and expansion of the vast Android Market, the security implications have in many cases prevented Android devices from being utilized in various government and enterprise environments. Of course, security concerns have also played a role in what to this point has been a relatively low rate of adoption of Android beyond the mobile and consumer electronics industries.

VDC continues to believe that Android will eventually become widely deployed in automotive infotainment applications, medical devices, military communication equipment, and other applications that place a premium on connectivity requirements, sophisticated user interaction, and application availability. SE Android, which is still in its early stages, may represent the first step toward building an implementation of Android that would be suitable for embedded devices with security requirements above and beyond those of typical smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics products.

However, while the strict access control policies of SE Android are likely to be attractive to OEMs, a significant level of compiling and other custom installation processes would still be required to deploy the platform – a process further complicated by customization requirements inherent in Android-based vertical market-specific devices. Herein lay the opportunities for embedded software vendors to capitalize on the momentum behind Android and perhaps finally help bring the platform to a much broader range of embedded device classes. By leveraging their domain expertise – both in the development of vertical market-specific applications and in embedded device security – vendors such as Green Hills Software, Mentor Graphics, MontaVista Software, SYSGO, Wind River, and others are expected to play a vital role in enabling OEMs to exploit the benefits of Android while also maintaining a secure operating environment. VDC also believes that it will be critical for these organizations to also evangelize the capabilities of Android as they pertain to security-enabled devices, as the community as a whole may not be inclined to completely accept the notion of deploying Android in environments where security is paramount.

VDC will investigate this trend among others in our upcoming report, Android in the Embedded Systems Market, from our research service Strategic Insights 2012: Embedded Software & Tools Market. Please contact us for more information.

Can Commercial Operating Systems Stay Relevant in Consumer Facing Devices?

While the recent smartphone struggles of Research In Motion and Microsoft have proven to be main points of mobile media fodder for 2011, the corresponding strengthening of the market positions of Apple and Android have further underscored the shift in mobile operating system business models.

Just a few years ago, the smartphone market was dominated by three main platforms: Symbian, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile. Then, in 2007, everything changed with the release of the first iPhone and the formation of the Open Handset Alliance.

Closed, OEM controlled platforms have always had a place in the mobile market as evidenced by Apple, Blackberry and even Palm once upon a time. The opportunity for commercial mobile application operating systems, however, seems to be dwindling. The acquisition and open sourcing (and ultimate demise) of Symbian left Microsoft as the sole major vendor servicing the domain that relies on a royalty-based business model. So, given this shift and the seemingly unstoppable momentum of the Apple and Android application development ecosystems, can a commercially licensed application OS ever again achieve significant share within the market

The evolving impact of commercially funded, non-commercial OSs

Already, we have seen a search engine company (Google) entrench itself within the mobile domain and subsequently gain traction in other embedded verticals. Amazon’s purported interest in acquiring RIM earlier this year brings this dynamic into even more of a spotlight. The company actually goes so far as to offer advertisement-subsidized versions of its Kindle e-readers, so it is within reason that they could extend this model to the smartphone space if they were to ever enter it. The allure and growth of mobile e-commerce is certainly large enough to attract and support this type of device subsidization, but what would the ultimate impact be on the broader embedded market?

We’ve been talking about the “iPhone effect” on embedded development for years as it pertains to the consumerization of other devices classes and the growing end user expectation for sophisticated touch interfaces. The growth and development of the Android ecosystem has likewise caused many OEMs to evaluate its suitability for a wide range of vertical markets. But could you ever expect end users to tolerate an advertisement pop up or logo on their industrial handheld terminal? Not likely.

Clearly, there are limits to the applicability and diffusion of these new OS platforms’ business models in a number of embedded industries. However, the mobile OS ecosystem has nevertheless been the main catalyst driving change in a number of embedded segments for years and - given the short shelf lives of and time to market windows for smartphones - will likely continue to drive the evolution of embedded technologies in the years to come. That said, considering the innate differences between the mobile phone space and other embedded verticals, can we still rightfully expect the blurring of the lines between these device classes’ OSs to continue or will we ultimately see their delineation once again become more concrete and a subsequent re-stratification of the supplier ecosystem?

Will Quad-core Phones Give QNX another Shot at Saving RIM?

In a blog last week, we highlighted the lack of consumer electronic devices shipping today with multicore chipsets. Smartphones, on the other hand, have already begun to make that transition and the inclusion of these new processors has even emerged as a point of marketing for many OEMs.

To date, however, these mobile multicore devices have mostly used dual-core processors. As there are more and more announcements (and speculations) about the forthcoming inclusion of quad-core processors in mobile phones, we are left wondering how or if this change could impact the supplier landscape.

The multifaceted impact of multicore processors

Whereas some level of performance improvement can be achieved through just the implementation of a basic SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) OS and the facilitation of “application multitasking”, the ability of a single application to take advantage of the multiple cores is limited by the percentage of the application’s tasks and instruction sets that can be executed in parallel. In the near term, the performance difference noticeable to end users will likely be small due to SMP OSs’ ability to obfuscate the complexities of the multiple cores and provide applications with incremental speed improvements, but the discernible discrepancies will only become more evident as next generation phones adopt more advanced silicon.

The bigger question might be what happens beyond 4 cores, when SMP OSs begin to lose some of their efficacy and developers themselves are forced to learn how to developed multithreaded apps. Today, many mobile application developers can get away with rather rudimentary development tools. This just may not be good enough in the future and may drive more developers to look for premium solutions.

The potential impact on the mobile OS ecosystem

Whereas all phone and OS providers will need to reevaluate their platforms and developer enablement strategies in light of the long-term adoption of many-core processors, we expect that this shift may actually have the greatest impact on the Android ecosystem. To abstract the complexities of the underlying software stack and market the OS to a broader range of developers, the OHA designed Android to use a Java virtual machine over its core Linux kernel.

As a result – in order to achieve the application speed required to remain competitive – Android developers may be forced to learn the C programming language (a longtime embedded favorite) for low-level native development on future many-core devices. This added difficulty in development (or simply the relative reduction in existing application performance improvements) may lead more developers and end users to again evaluate new mobile platforms not named Android or iOS. This market pause might just provide QNX/RIM (or even Microsoft) an opportunity to regain widespread relevance.

Whereas QNX is a newcomer to the mobile landscape, it is a well established stalwart of the multicore solution market. Provided that RIM can get some phones to market in a timely matter, QNX’s proven multicore technology could actually provide them with an edge in performance and a chip in their favor in the eyes of end consumers. That said, the shift beyond 4 cores is likely still at least a year away, which is nearly an eternity in the mobile world – both in terms of time for other OSs to invest in multicore performance enhancements as well as time for RIM (and all other mobile OSs) to fall far enough behind in their ecosystem development that they would not be able to mount a realistic comeback. Regardless of the prospects of the individual mobile OS suppliers, the continued evolution of the processor landscape should certainly provide ample opportunity for platforms and application developers alike to recast their value propositions and differentiation.

Part II: Will Android Erode the Software Development Tool Market?

In case you missed it, click here Part I of our analysis.

Over recent years, the commercial software development tool market has faced a number of pressures, which – to one degree or another – have eroded the commercial market’s growth potential. Whether you look at the continued evolution of open source tools or just the growing tendency of both OS vendors and silicon suppliers to bundle (or even give away) toolkits with their flagship products, traditional standalone software development tool (SDT) vendors are facing a growing set of obstacles.

Given this already challenging set of circumstances, can the increasing use of an open source OS (Android) make things worse for commercial SDT vendors?

As we have discussed before, a number of OEMs are also beginning to experiment with Android outside of the mobile phone space. Although there are not yet widespread deployments of the Android OS in these other vertical markets, it has catalyzed the development of its own supporting commercial solution and service market – much of which is actually driven by the interest in its use on non-ARM architectures.

In parallel to this growing demand for Android in other embedded verticals, however, we have already seen ARM make real, tangible progress in expanding its footprint beyond the mobile phone sector. Driven by the desire to improve power performance, many of OEMs have begun to evaluate ARM-based architectures and, in many cases, are subsequently forced to consider changes to their software as well. Clearly, this growing use of ARM can help create additional opportunities for Android.

So will the expansion of Android into new device classes and ARM’s recent toolkit strategy cannibalize some of the commercial market tools market? Perhaps. But in the broader embedded market? Not likely.
It is important to remember that most embedded industries are not subject to the whims and velocity of change of consumer markets and – believe it or not – have other device requirements (such as latency, support, footprint, etc.) that can trump OS-brand buzz. Even as many OEMs outside of the mobile phone sector experiment with Android, this is not necessarily to the exclusion of other OSs. Most OEMs simply do not have the luxury to place all of their eggs in one OS basket.

Additionally, the engineering rigor and incumbent development tools established within many of OEMs has created a somewhat inelastic demand – and available budget – for premium solutions. With application software an increasingly important point for differentiation across all embedded devices, this will likely not be too quick to change. If nothing else, ARM may have just taken one more step toward strengthening its value proposition within some of the non-mobile device classes that it covets – for both its commercial tools as well as its processor IP.

Click here Part I of our analysis.

Will Android Erode the Software Development Tool Market? - Part I

ARM recently announced a free toolkit (ARM Development Studio 5 Community Edition) for the Android application developer community. At a high level, you might be thinking, “so what, aren’t there already a number of free Android app tool kits available?” And, to a certain extent, you wouldn’t be wrong…until you start to consider the “so what” part.

For one, make no mistake about it – This is not your run-of-the-mill open source toolkit; ARM is in the business of delivering premium tools. In fact, they have an entire division with P&L responsibilities focused on it. This new toolkit supposedly can improve application performance up to 40% as compared to Android applications written solely in Java.

So then why on earth would a premium tool vendor release a high end tool for free?

First off, consider how the evolution of mobile phone space has impacted the demographics of the software development community. Application creation is no longer limited to engineers. Instead, we have seen a widening range of application functionality and sophistication translate to commercial viability, thus opening the doors to a broader set of developers (professionals, students, and hobbyists) with varying skill sets. Obviously, this demographic pool is somewhat at odds with the makeup of ARM’s traditional tool client base (engineers at OEMs).

Secondly, over the last decade,ARM has become synonymous with mobile and has monopolized the domain’s processor market. While it doesn’t look like their share is in jeopardy in the near term, competitors are proving relentless in their pursuit of the high volume market. Whereas their tool business might generate a sizable amount of revenue for ARM, we also all need to keep in mind that it is only a small portion of ARM's overall business. The real value of their tools has always come through the enablement of the success of their licensees’ clients – which, in turn, can lead to higher IP royalties as well as the perpetuation of their overall ecosystem’s strength.

In order to ensure this dynamic continues, ARM is making its best effort to entrench itself within the fast growing third-party software development organization demographic. Whereas the markets for third party mobile applications may have originally been populated with content created by the aforementioned hobbyists, these apps now represent huge revenue opportunities and formalized business entities are now forming to capitalize on them. Since ARM’s “free” toolkit is actually only free when your organization has fewer than 10 engineers and/or less than $100,000 in revenue, the company has the opportunity to gain mindshare and establish itself within potentially fast-growing development organizations that could one day even convert to commercial sale opportunities.

But given that ARM has a slightly different motivation than most tool vendors (they want to maximize processor design wins and unit shipments), what impact will ARM’s approach to the Android developer market play on the long term prospects of a commercial software development tool market?

Check back tomorrow for Part II of our analysis.

Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) – Boston 2011

VDC attended the 2011 Embedded Systems Conference in Boston on September 27 and 28 and held face-to-face meetings at the conference with over 20 exhibitors. This year’s ESC included greater than 100 exhibitors and was part of what UBM Electronics called Design Days Boston. Design Days Boston featured four events including ESC as part of one show including DesignMED North America, DesignCon East, and designing with LEDs. These four programs span a wide range of technologies and interests and were supported by numerous technical sessions.

Conference organizers reported at the show that registration was up 10-15% year over year. During the course of the show VDC observed that floor traffic and booth attendance at exhibitors conducting training sessions in mini-classroom settings seemed to draw and hold the attention of attendees in greater numbers.  

Companies need to make sure that they are realizing a positive return for their investments in these types of conferences. In many cases this translates to metrics such as show attendance, floor traffic, and quality of leads from attendees. Expanding ESC to a Design Days format that includes multiple unique design conferences in one is an approach that is sure to attract new exhibitors, engineers, and new energy. 

THE “EMBEDDIES” GO TO:

Best of Show

 

VDC awarded our software “Embeddy” for best of show live on the conference floor to aicas for their JamaicaCAR application management system (AMS), which offers a secure framework for running Java apps that enable car owners to update their automotive infotainment system as new functionality becomes available. Designed with safety and security in mind, the JamaicaCAR AMS minimizes driver distraction and ensures that only properly vetted applications can access critical resources.

This new framework for automotive connected applications jointly developed with Harman International addresses many challenges faced by embedded software developers today.  The system has been designed-in with stringent safety and security requirements and the resulting model supports access control and privilege management. Automotive OEMS will be able to integrate applications from suppliers while maintaining the same look and minimizing the need for customization. The new system will be offered on select trim levels in the 2012 Toyota Prius v, Prius Liftback, Prius Plug-in and the new Toyota Camry.

Honerable Mention

VDC awards an honorable mention to Green Hills Software for their announcement of MULTI Version 6 and Green Hills compiler 2012.  These new releases offer improved optimization of code size and performance. In addition, the Green Hills Compiler version 2012 is now available as a standalone product that offers engineering organizations the flexibility to independently upgrade just the compiler when support for new CPUs is required.

Walking the Floor

AdaCore, a leading supplier of Ada language tools and support services, announced the upcoming release of GNAT Programming Studio (GPS) 5.1 that is expected to be available in October 2011. The new release will feature extended support for C and C++, enhanced source editing and GUI features, and supported on most development platforms for both native and embedded software development.

Arium reviewed their recent announcement (mid-September) from the Intel Developer Forum for the support for the Intel Boot Loader Development Kit (BLDK). Arium’s SourcePoint debugger includes features that allow developers to debug source code used in BLDK development.

ARM conducted live demonstrations on their new DS-5 Linux Application Development System that includes DSTREAM debug and trace unit. In addition the company had demonstrations on their Microcontroller Development environment, MDK-ARM and their new ULINKpro debug and trace unit.

RTOS and tools supplier Enea demonstrated in their booth their Enea OSE RTOS highlighting multicore support, LINX IPC software, and Optima Eclipsed-based IDE that includes system debug and profiling tools.

Express Logic announced its NetX Duo TCP/IP IPv4/IPv6 dual stack has been extended to include support for the IPsec protocol.  A protocol suite for securing network communications, IPsec encrypts and authenticates each packet of a communication session and NetX Duo with IPsec support creates a virtual channel between two networks where packets are encrypted for security and signed for authenticity.

Static analysis tool vendor GrammaTech announced the next version of CodeSonar which incorporates new program analysis algorithms to identify data race conditions and other types of critical concurrency defects. In addition the new version includes a code-level metrics feature that will allow project managers the ability to track various types of metrics and set thresholds for automatically generated warnings when metrics are outside an expected range.  

IAR announced enhanced support in the company’s IAR Embedded Workbench tool suite for STMicroelectronics recently launched STM32 F4 family of ARM Cortex-M4 based microcontrollers. In addition the company announced that their IAR Workbench IDE for ARM C/C++ was selected by HOLT Integrated Circuits as Holt’s development environment for ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller development for their MIL-STD-1553 application development kit.

LDRA Software Technology announced version 9 of the LDRA tool suite which unifies its tools with a common user interface, central repositories and performance optimizations for lifecycle traceability.  In addition the company announced product integration with MathWorks Simulink modeling tools and their LDRA tool suite.

Micrium reviewed their recent announcement whereby Micrium products, kernels and complete RTOS solutions will be offered through Avnet Electronics Marketing.  

Newark/element14 a distributor and community for design engineers conducted demonstrations of its online search and knowledge tool, the element14 knode.

Objective Interface Systems, a supplier of high-performance communications middleware solutions, reviewed their recent announcement that their ORBexpress product now supports Wind River’s VxWorks 6.9 real-time OS with Symmetric Multiprocessing on multicore platforms. 

Parasoft announced a new release of their integrated Parasoft C/C++test development environment. New product highlights include support for an extended range of development environments, traceability reporting, complete system metrics calculation, and static analysis for 2011 CWE/SANS.

Reactive Systems, a software testing and validation company conducted demonstrations of their Reactis product line which includes Reactis for Simulink and Reactis for C.

Other leading embedded systems vendors in attendance at ESC/Boston included AMD, Altium, Avnet, Coverity, Digia-QT Commercial, eCosCentric, IBM, Intel, JTAG Technologies, KW-Software, Lauterbach, Logic PD, MathWorks, Perforce Software, SEGGER Microcontroller, Siemens PLM Software, SmartBear Software and others.

TRADEMARK ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many names of companies, associations, technologies, products, and product types, etc. mentioned in this bulletin comprise Trademarks, registered or non-registered, owned by various entities. These are too numerous to mention individually. VDC acknowledges that ownership of these Trademarks exists and requests that readers acknowledge this as well.

ABOUT VDC

This Embedded Systems Industry Bulletin is published as part of VDC’s Embedded Software Market Intelligence Service. VDC has been providing embedded systems market intelligence for over 20 years.

Published by VDC Research Group, Copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

 

AVAILABLE NOW - VDC RELEASES EMBEDDED ENGINEERING SURVEY DATA FOR 2011

The 2011 engineering survey data reports provide insight into the behavior, opinions, and demographics of embedded engineers, the degree to which embedded system engineering tasks are converging, and key system engineering trends likely to impact embedded systems manufacturers and solution providers over the short and long term.

This survey data is based on detailed Web survey responses collected worldwide in the March to July 2011timeframe and offers an understanding about the dynamics of the embedded market as they relate to current and future product development trends. This detailed data provides access to VDC’s extensive knowledge of the embedded engineering community based on the individual report topics.

VDC’s Embedded Software 2011 Market Intelligence Service, Track 2: Embedded Systems Engineering Survey Data, includes five volumes with more than 120 exhibits per volume for:

· Operating Systems;
· Development Tools;
· Vertical Markets;
· Regions and select Countries; and
· Processor Architectures.

Who should be interested?

Software (ESW, ESL, and EDA) and hardware (silicon and board) solution providers (whether currently engaged in the embedded market or not) should find this information of interest, as these reports provide valuable insight into the types of current and future requirements and methodologies that companies are using to engineer embedded devices/systems. This information can be used to assist companies in differentiating their solutions, developing competitive strategies, engineering products that better meet current and future customer requirements, and/or supporting key marketing and sales claims.

Systems manufacturers and semiconductor suppliers will also find value in this data in developing an understanding of key system engineering trends that will impact their business in the short and long term, gaining a perspective on the embedded software and hardware market, and an understanding of the vendor options available to them.

Stayed tuned for further information and sample data to be released from these individual reports.

For further information about VDC’s Embedded Software 20011 Market Intelligence Service contact:
Bob Perugini, Account Director, 508.653.9000 ext. 144, rperugini@vdcresearch.com

ESC Boston is This Month - Still Time to Register and Meet with VDC

The Embedded Systems Conference will be held this month (September 26^th-29^th) at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

VDC will be attending the conference once again this year and will be presenting our 7th annual Embeddy Awards for Best in Show live at the conference. The winners will be announced live ahead of Wednesday'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 announcements

Contact Stephen Balacco, Director, Embedded Software & Tools Practice, VDC Research Group by contacting Stephen at: sbalacco@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x 124.

For Hardware related announcements

Contact Richard Dean, Senior Analyst/Program Manager, Embedded Hardware and Systems Practice, VDC Research Group at: rdean@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x 152.

Still need to register?

Online registration is still open and you can always register in person at the show as well.

We are looking forward to another great show.  See you all in Boston!

PART II: GOOGLE/Motorola Acquisition Likely to Impact Embedded Market More than Mobile

Click Here for Part I of our Analysis

So what does this mean for the embedded market?

VDC has been tracking Android closely over the recent years as we have seen the appetite for and applicability of the platform grow within applications classes beyond mobile phones. Set top boxes and industrial ruggedized terminals are just two of the many use cases that embedded OEMs are now experimenting with. In quick response, many participants within the larger ecosystem of embedded software and hardware solution providers have aligned themselves to support development of the platform in these new use cases. In some instances, the embedded market potential for Android has even cannibalized the available market for traditional embedded Linux offerings.

Will this announcement and the associated fears regarding the sustainability of Android’s core mobile ecosystem impact embedded OEMs desire to embrace the “open” platform?

Clearly, it is hard to alter the momentum of an industry movement that has accelerated as quickly as Android has over the past few years. However, its penetration within the embedded market is still in many cases experimental. As compared to the mobile phone segment - there is not yet as robust of an ecosystem of solution providers or leveragable third-party content available for many of the hardware architectures or form factors in use within the broader embedded market today. The acquisition just may derail – or at least – slow down Android’s appearance in some embedded device classes.

Obviously, the nature of the embedded market with its often multi-year development cycle means that we will continue to see Android emerge in a higher percentage of development projects in the near future. We what can now expect, however, is that OEMs will increasingly look to hedge their own investments around OS platforms. This trend, which was initially instigated by the acquisitions of MontaVista and Wind River two years ago, will surely accelerate going forward, especially in the increasingly fickle consumer-facing device classes.

Given the potential increase of parallel (and ultimately superfluous) project development streams at OEMs, we expect that embedded OS vendors will need to reevaluate their engagement strategies and business models. In the recent past, there has been a growing movement for embedded OS vendors to offer flexible licensing terms, with OEMs choosing between term, subscription, and/or per unit device fees. The increase in the cost of sales – or rather the potential for decreases in the design in/deployment rates – will place increasing pressure on the production license model, with the risk/reward benefits shifting further into the OEMs favor.

If nothing else, Android helped to establish a demand for robust, commercially viable open source operating software stacks that can offer a depth of functionality beyond what Linux itself can offer. The rise of Android, however, has largely suffocated the efforts supporting platforms such as LiMo and MeeGo. This Motorola-Google acquisition could help resuscitate the market’s need for other open source or consortia-based operating system platforms. The larger question for the embedded market is if Android is no longer the right fit (and it probably still is) then what organization or consortia can pick of the mantle?