On Target: Embedded Systems

Expect Quick Response to MISRA C: 2012

Introducing MISRA C: 2012

Yesterday, the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association (MISRA) announced the availability of MISRA C: 2012, an important update to the software development standard for the C programming language. Beyond providing support for the C99 version of C, the improvements also aim to reduce the cost and complexity required to achieve compliance.

VDC’s View

MISRA adoption has spread far and wide since being introduced in the 1990s to provide guidelines for the development of embedded software in the European automotive industry. Since that time, the value proposition of a standard set of quality assurance coding rules has resonated far beyond safety-critical applications. The MISRA standards are now often used by developers as a collection of best practices for coding across a range of industries which may not be subject to specific certifications. 

VDC’s ongoing review of the engineering community continues to show more and more projects are being developed to some level of compliance with MISRA guidelines. Findings from our most recent Software and System Development Survey were gathered earlier this month. The results show 30% of engineers’ current projects are either fully MISRA C compliant or adhere to a subset of these rules (partially compliant). Full or partial MISRA C++ compliance was cited for 27% of current projects.

Given the widespread adoption of these process guidelines across multiple regions and vertical markets, you can expect the automated test and verification solution provider community to respond rapidly to the MISRA C: 2012 update.

Some, in fact, have already responded. LDRA, one of leading suppliers of automated test and verification tools, announced availability of compliance tools for MISRA C: 2012 on the same day as the standard’s release. Expect more suppliers to follow suit.

More insight

For further investigation and discussion about the impact of process standards in the embedded and enterprise development markets, please see our 2012 Software & Systems Lifecycle Management Tools Market Intelligence Service.

The M2M Embedded Software team at VDC is in the process of updating this research for 2013. The first volume of the 2013 service, Software & System Modeling Tools, will be available in the next couple of weeks. Included with the purchase of these reports are the findings from VDC’s Software and System Development survey which canvases software developers and serves as the source of the figures used above. 

 

VDC to Present Embeddy Awards Live at Design West

Want to see the latest technologies and tricks for embedded engineering? Head to Design West next month in San Jose, CA!

Contact us ASAP to schedule a meeting

VDC will be attending the Design West/ESC conference from Tuesday April 23 through Thursday April 25.

At the show, we will be presenting our 9th annual Embeddy Awards. The winners will be announced Live during Thursday's morning keynote session.

So how can your company win the Embeddy award?

To be considered,

First, fill out this on-line form: http://svy.mk/WU0abA

You must also 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, M2M Embedded Software & Tools at:
jweiner@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x143.

For Hardware related meetings

Contact David Laing, Senior Analyst, M2M Embedded Hardware Platforms 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 Security: The Bark is Bigger than the Bite, Part 1

Security has been top of mind with most executives of leading embedded suppliers who we spoke to in the past year. This should come as little surprise given the growing awareness of the potential impact of security breaches. As today’s devices and systems grow more complex and connected, this threat is growing exponentially. Time and again, we hear of some hacker or industrious engineering student demonstrating, either maliciously or as an educational warning, that a linked network may only be as secure as its most vulnerable element.

In a recent conversation with one of the foremost automated test and verification tool suppliers, an executive warned that while they hear overwhelming interest in security concerns across all verticals, actual investment in addressing the issue is not close to matching this professed concern.

Our findings do indeed confirm that within the Industrial Automation and Control (IAC) and Energy/Power industry, a distressingly high percentage of current projects involve no action to limit potential security issues. 

Just over 42% of the engineers responding from IAC and energy/power market indicate no proactive actions have been taken to address security concerns on their current project. The fact that 40% state their current project has no specific security requirements should offer little relief. Our research indicates that many projects without specific security requirements certainly ought to have them. Lack of security prevention or mitigation does not mean no security threat exists. What should also be alarming is the percentage of respondents “very confident” their security requirements would be met on their current project was in the single digits!

This represents a large, potentially lucrative market opportunity for suppliers of security solutions. But it should be unsettling to everyone else with even a passing understanding of the potentially catastrophic impact of vulnerabilities in these markets. Heard of Stuxnet anyone?

 

In the next couple of weeks, the Embedded Software team here at VDC Research finishes publication of a series of vertical market reports. These studies examine embedded developers’ demand and requirements for commercial OSs and software development tools within key vertical markets.

Volume 1, covering embedded software technologies in the Automotive vertical is available now. Volume 2, available later this week, looks into the Industrial Automation and Control (IAC) and Energy / Power industries. Data in the exhibit above is based on findings from this volume.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

For more information on security findings, including statistics from other verticals, please take a look at part two of this discussion, coming here soon.

VDC’s Top 12 of 2012 – Part 1

The end of the year is always a great time for reflection, for thinking about everything that happened throughout the year and what it all means. It is also a great time for making lists; Christmas lists, New Year’s resolutions, and Best Ofs. I won’t get into my New Year’s resolutions here, but I will take a few moments to highlight (and rank, just for fun) the most significant embedded software announcements of the past year.

So, without further ado, here is our take on the best of 2012!

 

12. GrammaTech introduces architecture visualization system for CodeSonar (March 27^th)

This system is 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.

11. LDRA forms LDRA Certification Services (March 26^th)

Attaining safety-critical certifications has long been a time-consuming and laborious task for embedded developers. In response to this challenge, LDRA formed a separate division of the company (staffed by credentialed industry experts) dedicated to facilitating the certification process for various FAA/EASA regulations. LDRA addresses the following standards: Aircraft & Systems Development (ARP-4754A), Safety Assessment (ARP-4761), Integrated Modular Avionics (DO-297), Flight Electronic Hardware (DO-254), Flight Software (DO-178B/C), and Ground Systems (DO-278/A).

10. Enea joins the embedded Linux party (March 27^th)

This was a bit of an about-face 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. This came on the heels of the release of another new commercial distribution, Mentor Embedded Linux (Mentor Graphics). The question for both Enea and Mentor, of course, is whether or not “late to the party” is good enough.

8 and 9. Siemens and PTC expand their lifecycle management coverage through acquisitions (Siemens/LMS International: November 8^th, PTC/Servigistics: August 8^th)

The complexity of today’s projects is increasing the dependence of each engineering discipline on the functionality of the other disciplines. The lines between software, electrical, and mechanical engineering have started to blur, necessitating a higher frequency of communication and coordination between these once separate groups. These acquisitions are further evidence that the concept of developing a cross-domain approach to providing solutions to this market has been one of the main overarching themes of 2012.

Siemens’ acquisition of LMS International will allow the company to extend their systems driven product development support through integrated test management, while Servigistics’ presence in PTC’s portfolio will enable PTC to better help its customers service their products under development.

7. General Dynamics acquires OK Labs (September 11^th)

According to GD, OK Labs will deploy its OKL4 Microvisor in secure mobile devices (for civilian, government, and military use) and automotive in-vehicle infotainment systems as part of the GD Broadband business unit – presumably within both internal and commercial opportunities. But will commercial opportunities actually be there? For years, suppliers of mobile hypervisors have struggled to effectively communicate the value proposition of their solutions. As a result, revenues never really scaled and leading vendors struggled to realize significant growth. In the case of OK Labs, this ultimately resulted in acquisition. Given the historical difficulties in monetizing mobile virtualization, we believe it may be only a matter of time before GD completely internalizes the use of OKL4 technology.

Part 2 on Wednesday!

Come back on Wednesday for the second half of this list, including our pick for the top announcement of the year!

The Embedded Software Beat

A Q&A with Paul Anderson, VP of Engineering, GrammaTech

This interview is the third in a series that we look to conduct during the course of 2012 with embedded software solution providers to share their views on their company, products, and state of the market.

VDC: GrammaTech has been in the source code analysis business for over 20 years; can you briefly introduce the company to our readers?

Anderson: We were founded as a spin-off from Cornell University to commercialize the results of research into interactive development environments. Since then we have done a lot of research into software analysis and manipulation. For the last five years or so our main product has been an advanced static analysis tool for C/C++. It does a whole-program path-sensitive analysis to find serious programming defects such as buffer overruns. We sell it mostly to companies doing embedded safety-critical work, but also to those doing serious security analysis.

VDC: What are the challenges engineers face today in designing and developing embedded devices and how are embedded software suppliers responding?

Anderson: For years we have been able to rely on increased clock speeds and integration to get better performance. That trend is running out of steam, so chip designers have turned to multiple cores to improve throughput. The problem is that developers usually need to rewrite their code to take maximum advantage of the potential. Writing efficient concurrent code requires new skills, and this introduces the risk of entirely new classes of programming defect such as deadlocks and data races. These are usually very difficult to detect and diagnose because they are highly sensitive to minute differences in timing. Dynamic analysis tools are beginning to emerge that can help with detection and diagnosis, and static-analysis tools can be used to prevent them from being introduced in the first place.

VDC: You recently announced CodeSonar for Java. Can you briefly describe this product and talk a little bit about the use of Java in embedded systems today?

Anderson: Java is a much more civilized language than C/C++ — a bug like a buffer overrun in C is potentially disastrous because it corrupts the memory in unpredictable ways, but the same bug in Java will trigger a well-defined exception that can be handled in a controlled manner. On the other hand Java programmers make much heavier use of general-purpose APIs and frameworks and it is possible to introduce bugs by misusing these. Consequently for Java there is less need for the sophisticated and expensive analysis needed for C programs. Our first version of the Java product does a fairly lightweight analysis, but the results are still managed through the same web-based user interface used for the C/C++ product.

In embedded systems development C is usually used for the embedded processors themselves, and Java (or other languages like C#) is most often used for the non-safety- or performance-critical components such as the desktop or handheld computers used to manage the devices.

Of course Java is the language primarily used for Android development for devices such as mobile phones and tablets, but such development has more in common with traditional data processing or UI programming than embedded programming.

It would be great if there were more of a move towards Java for real-time embedded, and there are some very good tools available, but it does not appear to be happening very fast. C and C++ will be with us for the foreseeable future.

VDC: Device security, which has long been an area of expertise for GrammaTech, has become a very buzzworthy topic in recent months. What are some of the vulnerabilities and other security issues that engineers need to guard against as they seek to develop secure devices in this increasingly connected world?

Anderson: Researchers have demonstrated that it is relatively easy to take control of many embedded devices. I recently saw a presentation that showed a successful attack on the control computer of an automobile that was launched by inserting an infected disk into the CD player. The attack surface of many devices is growing rapidly because of market demands for increasing connectivity. Nobody should assume that their devices are unlikely to be targets of attacks. Hackers can be incredibly creative at finding ways to exploit vulnerabilities for their own ends.

Consequently it is becoming clear that all embedded developers must be aware of security risks and that they should program to avoid them. Fortunately there are lots of publicly-available resources to help programmers understand security vulnerabilities.  For example, the CWE/SANS Top 25 lists the most notorious programming defects that can lead to exploitations.

After getting educated and adopting the appropriate tools, the most important thing that developers can do is to cultivate the correct mindset. They should assume that their software will be scrutinized for vulnerabilities by extremely talented and determined adversaries, and program accordingly. It is most critical to pay attention to the interfaces between systems as this is where most weaknesses lurk.

VDC: GrammaTech is also heavily involved in cutting-edge research.  What can you tell us about some of your recent or ongoing research efforts?

Anderson: We work on various program analysis tools and techniques including static and dynamic analysis for both source code and object code, with applications in software assurance, security and protection. One project is aimed at protecting users from potentially malicious code by monitoring it during execution and preventing it from doing harm. A related project combines static and dynamic techniques to do a sort of intelligent fuzzing to automatically generate test cases that yield very high code coverage.

VDC: If you were to take a look a look into your crystal ball, how do see the opportunities for the embedded software market shaping up as we head toward 2013?

Anderson: I have already mentioned two major trends: concurrency and security; demand for tools to help with these aspects of development will probably increase. The use of Eclipse— the open-source IDE — is growing rapidly; it has been the dominant IDE for Java for years, and support for C/C++ is now mature. It integrates tightly with debuggers, profilers, version control systems, and other tools so it can boost programmer productivity enormously. I would expect tool-chain vendors to improve their integration with Eclipse to take advantage of this great resource.

VDC: Thank you Paul.

Interested in participating in VDC’s “The Embedded Software Beat” series of interviews? Please reach out and let us know.

Paul Anderson is VP of Engineering at GrammaTech. He received his B.Sc. from Kings College, University of London and his Ph.D. in computer science from City University London. Paul manages GrammaTech's engineering team and is the architect of the company's static-analysis tools. He has helped a wide variety of organizations, including NASA, the FDA, the FAA, MITRE, Draper Laboratory, GE, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing, apply automated code analysis to critical projects. Paul has worked in the software industry for 16 years, with most of his experience focused on developing static-analysis, automated-testing, and program-transformation tools. A significant portion of his work has involved applying program analysis to improve security. His research on static analysis tools and techniques has been reported in numerous articles, journal publications, book chapters, and international conferences.

 

Embedded Bits n Bytes – In case you missed these recent announcements……

AdaCore, provider of tools and expertise for the mission-critical, safety-critical, and security-critical software communities, announced the successful usage of its SPARK Pro and GNAT Pro High-Security products by Rockwell Collins in the development of the SecureOne™ Guard, a high assurance cross domain guard for military tactical systems.
http://www.adacore.com/press/secureone/

ARM (NASDAQ: ARMH) and Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS) signed a multi-year agreement that expands Synopsys’ access to a broad range of ARM intellectual property (IP).
http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-and-synopsys-expand-collaboration-to-optimize-power-and-performance-and-accelerate-design-and.php

Atego, a supplier of software tools and professional services for complex, mission- and safety-critical systems and software engineering launched Aonix ObjectAda® 8.5 for Windows with new support for Microsoft Windows® 7 systems. The new release is based on the latest build tools and libraries from the Microsoft Windows SDK 7.1 and Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and provides a new streamlined, modernized installer based on the Microsoft Windows Installer.
http://www.atego.com/pressreleases/pressitem/atego-launches-aonix-objectada-85

Atollic announced the availability of their IDE for embedded microcontroller designs – Atollic TrueSTUDIO v3.2 - that adds support for dual-core debugging and over 200 new target devices.
http://atollic.com/download/ATC009A2TrueSTUDIO3DOT2.pdf

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, announced that the first products in the Cadence DDR4 SDRAM PHY and memory controller design intellectual property (IP) family have been proven in silicon on TSMC’s 28HPM and 28HP process technologies.
http://www.cadence.com/cadence/newsroom/press_releases/Pages/pr.aspx?xml=090412_DDR4

Coverity, Inc., the leader in development testing, announced that the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), builder of the Curiosity Rover, used Coverity to help ensure the reliability of the mission-critical flight software guiding the successful landing of Curiosity on Mars.
http://www.coverity.com/html/press/nasa-jpl-relies-on-coverity-to-ensure-the-seamless-touchdown-and-operation-of-the-curiosity-mars-rover.html

DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission - and safety-critical applications, announced that it has signed an exclusive sales agreement with Itec Ltd. Itec will offer DDC-I’s best-in-class safety-critical Deos™ real-time operating system, eclipse-based OpenArbor™ development tools and certification services to commercial and military avionics customers in Israel.
http://www.ddci.com/displayNews.php?fn=news__pr_israel_disty_082912_release.php

Esterel Technologies, a worldwide provider of model-based development solutions for critical systems and software, announced the integration of SCADE Display® with Barco's MOSArt™. MOSArt is Barco's Modular Open System Architecture for real-time avionics applications.
http://www.esterel-technologies.com/news-events/press-releases/2012/Barco-MOSArt-Open-Software-Platform-Now-Provides-Native-Integration-to-Esterel-Technologies-SCADE-Display

Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. (NYSE: FSL) announced it is licensing Image Cognition Processing (ICP) intellectual property (IP) from CogniVue Corporation that will be incorporated into new processors for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Freescale will be the exclusive provider of this technology to the automotive market.
http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1734693&highlight=&tid=rsspr

GrammaTech, Inc., a manufacturer of source-code analysis tools, announced CodeSonar® 3.8, new version that offers faster code analysis with fewer false positives.
http://www.grammatech.com/news/2012/releases/09-04-12.html

Green Hills Software, a leading vendor of embedded software solutions, announced its collaboration with AppliedMicro, a global leader in energy conscious computing and communications solutions for data center, telecom, and enterprise and consumer applications.
http://www.ghs.com/news/201200905_AppliedMicro_PocketPro2.html

IAR Systems announced a new legal entity: IAR Systems SARL (Société à responsabilité limitée), located in Courtaboeuf Cedex Southwest of Paris, France.
http://www.iar.com/en/About/Pressroom/Press-releases/2012/9/IAR-Systems-enforces-presence-in-France-with-new-legal-entity/

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) announced the next-generation Digital Signage Evaluation Kit-12 (DSEK-12) designed to streamline the digital signage evaluation process, reduce costs and enable faster deployment across a range of market segments including retail, healthcare and transportation.
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2012/09/05/intel-aims-to-streamline-development-and-deployment-of-intelligent-signs-with-new-digital-signage-kit

Lauterbach, a leading manufacturer of hardware assisted microprocessor development tools, announced that their TRACE32® debuggers now support the ARMv8 architecture.
http://www.lauterbach.com/frames.html?home.html

LDRA, a leading provider of automated software verification, source code analysis, and test tools has joined The Open Group Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium and announces its commitment to bring its verification and standards conformance expertise to the FACE community.
http://www.ldra.com/index.php/en/component/content/article/11-news-press-releases/549-ldra-technology-inc-joins-the-future-airborne-capability-environment-face-consortium

LynuxWorks, a leader in the embedded safety and security software market announced LynxSecure support of the Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions' VPX3-1256 3U VPX Intel® Core i7 Single Board Computer.
http://www.lynuxworks.com/corporate/press/2012/vpx3-1256.php

MathWorks announced introduced new releases of MATLAB and Simulink that significantly improve use and navigation.
http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsroom/MathWorks-Introduces-Major-New-Releases-of-MATLAB-and-Simulink.html

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) announced  it has added and improved support for 42 embedded development boards for the Nucleus RTOS, Mentor Embedded Linux, and Sourcery Codebench embedded development products.
http://www.mentor.com/company/news/upload/embedded-extends-support-development-boards.pdf

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions announced the expansion of its certified Full-Speed USB 2.0 Device PIC microcontroller portfolio with three new Enhanced Midrange 8-bit families comprising 15 scalable MCUs ranging from 14 to 100 pins with up to 128 KB of Flash.
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/press-release/microchip-expands-usb-portfoli.html

National Instruments (NASDAQ: NATI) announced LabWindows/CVI 2012, the latest version of its proven ANSI C IDE for test and measurement software programmers.
http://digital.ni.com/worldwide/bwcontent.nsf/websearch/e2a864b533ebb93786257a6f0045c9c9?opendocument&nisrc=RSS-news-en

Parasoft Corporation, announced that their Parasoft C/C++test, the industry's most comprehensive Embedded Testing platform for C and C++ development, now supports additional IAR Embedded Workbench environments.
http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/products/release.jsp?articleId=3989&type=Current

Perforce Software announced the availability of the new Perforce Plug-in for Visual Studio, P4VS that embeds the capabilities of the Perforce Software Version Management system into Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.
http://www.perforce.com/press/perforce-software-launches-new-integration-visual-studio-2012

Presagis, a leading provider of commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) modeling, simulation, and embedded graphics software, announced that it has signed a Corporate License Agreement with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), tactical reconnaissance radars, and Electro-Optic (EO) surveillance systems.
http://www.presagis.com/about_us/press_room/releases/presagis_and_general_atomics_aeronautical_systems_sign_corporate_license_agreement/

PTC (NASDAQ: PMTC) announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Servigistics, Inc., developer of an innovative suite of service lifecycle management (SLM) software solutions, for approximately $220 million in cash.
http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/textsub.jsp?&im_dbkey=142403&icg_dbkey=21

QNX Software Systems Limited, a global leader in software platforms for the in-car infotainment and telematics market, announced that it is a Bronze sponsor of the EcoCar 2: Plugging in to the Future competition. Established by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM), the competition challenges 15 universities across North America to reduce the environmental impact of a Chevrolet Malibu without compromising performance, safety, and consumer acceptability.
http://www.qnx.com/news/pr_5279_1.html

Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, announced that it has obtained regulatory approval in Taiwan to acquire SpringSoft, Inc. In addition, greater than 51 percent of the outstanding shares of SpringSoft have been tendered. By meeting these two milestones, Synopsys expects to complete the tender offer and take a controlling interest in SpringSoft as of October 1, 2012.
 http://news.synopsys.com/index.php?s=43&item=1066

SYSGO, a leading provider of operating system technology, middleware, and software services for the real-time and embedded market, announced the release of ELinOS 5.2, the latest version of their commercially available embedded Linux development environment. This new release of Industrial Grade Linux offers integration of major kernel release, 3.2 with new features in the areas of scheduling, memory management, file systems, networking and security.
http://www.sysgo.com/news-events/press/press/details/article/sysgo-release-enhanced-version-52-of-elinosTM-industrial-grade-linux/

Timesys Corporation, a provider of embedded Linux solutions and professional services, introduced the availability of its LinuxLink framework for development on the Xilinx® Zynq™-7000 All Programmable SoC in the ZC702 Evaluation Kit based on the Linux 3.3 kernel.
http://www.timesys.com/company/news-events/pr/xilinx-zynq7000

Wind River, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) introduced Wind River Intelligent Device Platform, a complete software development environment built exclusively for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. The platform addresses the security, connectivity, and manageability required for M2M device development.
http://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=11001

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.

Embedded Bits and Bytes – In case you missed these recent announcements……

AdaCore, provider of tools and expertise for the mission-critical, safety-critical, and security-critical software communities, announced that SmartSide, a Paris-based company providing Smart Metering and Smart Grid management solutions, has adopted the Ada programming language and AdaCore’s GNAT Pro development environment for the implementation of their Smart Devices platform.
http://www.adacore.com/press/smartside-adopts-ada-gnat-pro/

ARM (NASDAQ: ARMH) announced that their relationship with Cavium has been extended to include an architecture license for the ARMv8.
http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-and-cavium-extend-relationship-with-armv8-architecture-license.php

Atego, a supplier of software tools and professional services for complex, mission- and safety-critical systems and software engineering has entered into an agreement with International Business Machines Corporation to acquire the IBM Rational Apex® Ada Developer product family, including the IBM Rational Apex integrated development environment.
http://www.atego.com/pressreleases/pressitem/atego-acquires-ibm-rational-apex-ada-developer-product-family/

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, announced results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2012.
http://www.cadence.com/cadence/newsroom/press_releases/Pages/pr.aspx?xml=072512_financial

Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications, and the digital home, announced its Project Thunder Initiative which will deliver a family of highly integrated, multi-core SoC processors, that will incorporate highly optimized, full custom cores built from the ground up based on 64-bit ARMv8 instruction set architecture.
http://www.cavium.com/newsevents_Cavium_Unveils_Project_Thunder.html

Coverity, Inc., the leader in development testing, announced the that it has joined the GENIVI Alliance to help shape the future of software quality of In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) systems within the automotive industry.
http://www.coverity.com/html/press/coverity-joins-genivi-alliance.html

DDC-I, a leading supplier of software and professional services for mission - and safety-critical applications, announced that it has added support for ARINC Specification 653 Part 1 to its DO-178B certifiable Deos real-time operating system (RTOS).
http://www.ddci.com/displayNews.php?fn=news__653_Deos_062612_release.php

Enea (NASDAQ: OMX Nordic: ENEA), a leading operating system solution vendor for 3G and 4G infrastructure equipment, is announced their interim report for the period April to June 2012.
http://www.enea.com/Corporate/Press/Press-releases/Press-release/?item=684814

Esterel Technologies, a worldwide provider of model-based development solutions for critical systems and software, announced the SCADE LifeCycle Qualified Test Environment (QTE) and its interface with the LDRA tool suite.
http://www.esterel-technologies.com/news-events/press-releases/2012/Esterel-Technologies-Introduces-SCADE-LifeCycle-Qualified-Test-Environment-and-Interface-with-the-LDRA-Tool-Suite

ETAS announced plans to acquire ESCRYPT GmbH, a system house specializing in embedded
system security technologies and solutions.
http://www.etas.com/data/press_room/Press_Release_ETAS_ESCRYPT_en.pdf

Express Logic, Inc., a leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), introduced ThreadX-Lite for IAR Workbench. The product was jointly developed with IAR and will be sold exclusively through IAR Systems.
http://rtos.com/news/detail/express_logic_introduces_threadx-lite_for_iar_embedded_workbench_users/

Freescale Semiconductor, Ltd. (NYSE: FSL) announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 29, 2012.
http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1716592&highlight=

GrammaTech, Inc., a manufacturer of source-code analysis tools, received a Certificate of Compatibility from the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) program. CWE, developed by the MITRE Corporation under the sponsorship of the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security, provides a standard language for describing software security weaknesses.
http://www.grammatech.com/news/2012/releases/04-16-12.html

Green Hills Software, a leading vendor of embedded software solutions, announced its Platform for Automotive Digital Instruments which includes new features of the INTEGRITY® real-time operating system (RTOS).
http://www.ghs.com/news/201200620_ftf12_auto_dig_instru.html

IAR Systems announces the release of a new version of its high-performing development tools for ARM. IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM, version 6.40, adds several new features, feature enhancements, and major optimizations.
http://www.iar.com/en/Investors/IR-news/Press-releases/2012/6/IAR-Systems-further-enhances-world-leading-development-tools-for-ARM/

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) announced second quarter revenue of $13.5 billion, operating income of $3.8 billion, net income of $2.8 billion and EPS of $0.54.
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2012/07/17/intel-reports-second-quarter-revenue-of-135-billion?cid=rss-258152-c1-276405

IntervalZero, Inc., announced the release of RTX 2012, the latest version of its hard real-time software that transforms Microsoft Windows into a real-time operating system (RTOS).
http://www.intervalzero.com/newsevents/intervalzero-releases-rtx-2012/

Klocwork Inc, the global leader in automated source code analysis (SCA) solutions for developing more secure and reliable software, announced the completion of a banner first half of 2012 highlighted by record bookings performance and achievement of the 1000 customer milestone.
http://www.klocwork.com/news/press-releases/releases/2012/PR-2012_07_10-Klocwork-Passes-1000-Customer-Milestone.php

Lauterbach, a leading manufacturer of hardware assisted microprocessor development tools, announced support the new AURIX TC27x family from Infineon with its TRACE32® Debugger.
http://www.lauterbach.com/frames.html?home.html

LDRA, a leading provider of automated software verification, source code analysis, and test tools announced that they have extended the interface between LDRA tool suite and IAR Systems Embedded Workbench with support for platforms such as ARM, AVR, M32C, RL78, MSP430 and their evaluation boards.
http://www.ldra.com/index.php/en/component/content/article/11-news-press-releases/511-ldra-and-iar-systems-target-iec-61508-and-iec-62304-certification-of-small-footprint-architectures

LynuxWorks, a leader in the embedded safety and security software market announced the release of a new version of their LynxSecure Hypervisor that will include increased endpoint and server protection.
http://www.lynuxworks.com/corporate/press/2012/lynxsecure-5.1.php

MathWorks announced that Simulink, Embedded Coder, and the AUTOSAR Target Production Package (ATPP) now support AUTOSAR 4.0.
http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsroom/MathWorks-Offers-AUTOSAR-4.0-Production-Support-with-Simulink.html

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) announced Nucleus product integration and SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) support for the MIPS32 34K core that utilizes MIPS Technologies’ MT (hardware Multi-Threading) technology.
http://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/news/mentor-announces-support-for-the-mips32-34k-core

Micrium, a leading supplier of high-quality software components for embedded systems, announced a completely redesigned version of the innovative visualization tool uC/Probe. The new version of the tool features a highly intuitive drag-and-drop interface aimed at helping developers effortlessly create graphical representations of running embedded systems.
http://micrium.com/page/press_room/news/id:74

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions,  announced the expansion of its stand-alone Real-Time Clock/Calendar (RTCC) portfolio with the new 10-pin, SPI MCP795XX family.
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/press-release/microchips-new-rtcc-family-pro.html

MontaVista® Software, LLC, a leader in embedded Linux commercialization announced the release of MontaVista Automotive Technology Platform (ATP) 2.0 and that it has been declared compliant to the new GENIVI Specification version 2.0 by the GENIVI Alliance.
http://www.mvista.com/press_release_detail.php?fid=news/2012/MontaVista_Announces_Automotive_Technology_Platform.html

National Instruments (NASDAQ: NATI) announced the LabVIEW FPGA IP Builder add-on, which uses leading Xilinx Vivado High-Level Synthesis technology to simplify high-performance field-programmable gate array (FPGA) algorithm design.
http://digital.ni.com/worldwide/bwcontent.nsf/5076c193a6bfa57486256a7000512ca4/2c9d926e86720f5b86257a4c00498aa5?OpenDocument

Parasoft Corporation, a leader in helping organizations define and deliver defect-free software efficiently, and Green Hills Software, the worldwide leader in high assurance operating systems, announced that Parasoft C/C++test, the industry's most comprehensive testing solution for C and C++ development, now supports additional Green Hills Software MULTI® environments.
http://www.parasoft.com/jsp/products/release.jsp?articleId=3855&type=Current

Perforce Software and Assembla announced today the availability of an on demand version of Perforce Software Version Management that is integrated with team tools from Assembla.
http://www.perforce.com/press/perforce-assembla-partner-deliver-cloud-hosted-solution-accelerates-agile-development

Presagis, a leading provider of commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) modeling, simulation, and embedded graphics software, announced the latest release of its next-generation software for Human Machine Interface (HMI) development: VAPS XT v4.0 and VAPS XT-178 v4.0.
 http://www.presagis.com/about_us/press_room/releases/presagis_pioneers_hmi_development_with_next-generation_software/

PRQA | Programming Research, a leader in static analysis, announced an upgrade to QA•C. Version 8.1 is a new release of this leading static analysis tool for C environments that incorporates improvements to its sophisticated deep-flow dataflow analysis technology and increased enforcement of the MISRA coding standards.
http://www.programmingresearch.com/press-releases/2012/prqa-upgrades-qac-with-enhanced-dataflow-capability-and-increased-misra-enforcement/

PTC (NASDAQ: PMTC) announced solid Q3 results, increase FY12 EPS guidance.
http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/textsub.jsp?&im_dbkey=141969&icg_dbkey=21

QNX Software Systems Limited, a global leader in software platforms for the in-car infotainment and telematics market, announced that it will collaborate with the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, a branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIAT CAS), to establish a Center of Excellence for Embedded Software Systems in China.
http://www.qnx.com/news/pr_5166_1.html

Synopsys, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, announced that it completed the acquisition of Ciranova, a privately held electronic design automation (EDA) company focused on delivering productivity improvements in custom IC design.
http://synopsys.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1050

SYSGO, a leading provider of operating system technology, middleware, and software services for the real-time and embedded market, announced a new partnership with Rapita Systems that includes support for PikeOS, SYSGO’s SSV (Safe and Secure Virtualization Tool) in the Rapita Verification Suite (RVS) tools.
http://www.sysgo.com/news-events/press/press/details/article/rapita-systems-and-sysgo-announce-partnership-deal/

Timesys Corporation, a provider of embedded Linux solutions and professional services, announced the availability of its LinuxLink FREE and PRO Edition offerings via the ARM / Avnet Embedded Software Store.
http://www.timesys.com/company/news-events/pr/timesys-joins-embedded-software-store

Wind River, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) introduced the latest version of Wind River Simics which features a quick start capability allowing embedded developers to easily and immediately benefit from using full system simulation when developing, debugging, and testing software.
http://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=10801

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.

Quality, Quality, Quality: The 3 Most Important Factors for Automated Test Tools

It’s common knowledge that code bases have continued to grow in size and complexity and that more product end value is reliant upon software. This growth requires organizations to commit more and more of their time and resources to software development.

With OEMs under mounting pressure to find new and more efficient ways to maximize their software content creation without proportionate increases in software engineering man-power, engineering organizations are utilizing more third-party code sources as well as more sophisticated tools that can generate production ready code from higher level designs.

In fact, embedded engineers responding to VDC’s 2012 Software and Systems Development survey indicated only 55% of their in-house developed code was hand-coded for their current project; 17% of their code was auto generated, while 28% was leveraged from other projects. With enterprise engineers, there was even a greater use of these alternate sources; just 52% of their in-house developed code was hand coded for their current project.

Our research confirms demand and use of code generation tools is increasing significantly for both V-model and Agile methods. VDC expects this code source will continue to bear more weight in the years to come as the technology continues to improve. This increasing reliance on third party code is fueling an expansion of the test tool market as companies are held responsible for the overall quality of their end product, including the components received from outside sources.

Given this paradigm, it is no surprise that respondents to VDC’s 2012 survey selected “Impact on Quality” as the most important selection criteria for Static, Dynamic, and Model-based test tools. With the acceleration of software content growth expected to persist, we believe that the evaluation and adoption of automated test tools will be increasingly regarded as critical for quality assurance and as an important instrument for remaining competitive.

The potential costs for software defects in embedded devices, especially those in safety critical applications, are just too severe to leave addressed by manual processes or chance.

More insight

For further investigation and discussion about these trends and others, please see our recently published report, Automated Test and Verification Tools, volume 2 of our 2012 Software & System Lifecycle Management Tools Market Intelligence Service.

Also available is VDC’s webinar, Pressure Pushing Software Testing Mainstream

Please contact us for more information.

ALM/PLM integration, who's going to lead?

Complexity driving need for greater tool integration

The complexity of today’s embedded devices and systems has escalated across all industries, coupled with a growing requirement for connectivity and mobility. To meet these challenges, developers’ use of software and system lifecycle management (SSLM) tools has expanded across a broader range of challenges than the specific engineering tasks for which they were originally developed. To support this usage, many suppliers are shifting away from point solution offerings towards integrated platform/suite solutions addressing a broader portion of the software development lifecycle.

A need for cross-domain integration

As the growing level of system complexity elevates the value proposition and stimulates expanded functionality of SSLM tools, we believe that it is becoming increasingly critical for engineering organizations to identify new methods for managing overall system development, across different engineering domains.

We continue to be in discussion with numerous stakeholders around cross-domain integration. There is progressively more interest about enhanced integration and collaboration between different engineering disciplines from OEM and tool supplier communities.

Based on these discussions and our research, VDC believes the potential benefits of a greater level of cross-domain integration and collaboration include:

• Facilitation of collaboration across project and product teams.
• Centralize component change management.
• Improve visibility into and interpretation of project requirements, design, and status.
• Encourage wider recognition and reuse of all forms of an organization’s embedded intellectual property (IP).

 

Market looking for software suppliers to take the lead

Findings from VDC’s 2012 Software and System Development Survey indicate that not only are a large percentage of engineering organizations investigating integrations across multiple domains, but perhaps more importantly, the research suggests they will look to software vendors to lead this effort.

• 39% of engineering respondents to our survey selected Software/ALM vendor led integrations as most successful in enabling a potential integration, a greater number than those selecting Mechanical/PLM and Silicon design/EDA combined.
• Furthermore, over 72% of respondents investigating cross domain integrations are exploring a combination that includes software.

Leading vendors positioning solutions to address ALM-PLM integration

VDC believes the development of a cross-domain integration solution approach, such as ALM-PLM, is the logical next step for tool vendors who have developed platforms to support most or all of the software development lifecycle. Leading software vendors, such as IBM, PTC with their acquisition of MKS, and ANSYS with a planned acquisition of Esterel, have begun organic and acquisition-based expansions to position their solutions around cross domain integration. VDC believes further M&A activities are likely in the near term as these and other vendors look to fill in gaps in their tool-sets to better address cross-domain engineering integration.

More insight

For further investigation and discussion about these trends and others, please see our recently published report, Automated Test and Verification Tools, volume 2 of our 2012 Software & System Lifecycle Management Tools Market Intelligence Service. Please contact us for more information.

 

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

AdaCore, provider of tools and expertise for the mission-critical, safety-critical, and security-critical software communities, announced that Embraer Defense and Security has selected the GNAT Pro Ada development environment from AdaCore as a primary tool set to develop the Operation Flight Program for the AMX Modernization program.
http://www.adacore.com/press/embraer-amx-upgrade/

ARM announced the availability of a high performance, power-optimized quad-core hard macro implementation of its flagship ARM® Cortex™-A15 MPCore™ processor.
http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-announces-cortex-a15-quad-core-hard-macro.php

Atego, the world leading software tools and professional services supplier for complex, mission- and safety-critical systems and software engineering has launched the DO-178 Process Library for its ground breaking process definition, management and deployment product, Atego Process Director.
http://www.atego.com/pressreleases/pressitem/atego-launches-atego-process-director-for-do-178

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS), a leader in global electronic design innovation, announced the Cadence Virtual System Platform has been named a winner in the EE Times and EDN 2012 UBM Electronics ACE Awards in the Software Ultimate Products category.
http://www.cadence.com/cadence/newsroom/press_releases/pages/pr.aspx?xml=040212_ace_awards

Cavium, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM), a leading provider of highly integrated semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications, and the digital home, announced that financial results for the first quarter of 2012 will be below the company’s previous outlook.
http://www.cavium.com/newsevents_Cavium_Financial_Outlook_Q1-2012.html

Coverity, Inc., the leader in development testing, announced the availability of the latest version of its development testing platform, Coverity 6.0, and its new online developer community, CoverityConnect.
http://www.coverity.com/html/press/coverity-drives-developer-collaboration-around-the-globe-with-coverity-6.html

dSPACE TargetLink 3.3, the new version of dSPACE's production code generator, provides elaborately expanded features for AUTOSAR-compliant development of electronic control units, and supports the latest AUTOSAR standards 4.0 and 3.2.
http://www.dspace.com/en/inc/home/company/dspace_pressroom/press/pr120302.cfm

Enea® (NASDAQ OMX Nordic:ENEA), a leading operating system solution vendor for 3G and 4G infrastructure equipment, is announced Enea Linux together with complementing innovative technologies addressing next generation networking infrastructure demands.
http://www.enea.com/Corporate/Press/Press-releases/Press-release/?item=651230

Esterel Technologies, a worldwide provider of model-based development solutions for critical systems and software, announced the immediate availability of SCADE System, a systems design and modeling tool suite that has been developed specifically for use on critical systems with high dependability requirements, providing a full support of industrial systems engineering processes, such as
ARP 4754, ISO 26262, and EN50126.
http://www.esterel-technologies.com/news-events/press-releases/2012/Esterel-Technologies-Announces-Immediate-Availability-of-SCADE-System

Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), announced that the ThreadX® RTOS now is available for multicore systems in both Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) or Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP) modes.
http://rtos.com/news/detail/express_logics_threadx_rtos_solves_multicore_smp_and_amp_programming_c/

Freescale Semiconductor Holdings I, Ltd. (NYSE:FSL) announced that its Board of Directors has launched a formal process to identify a successor to Chairman and CEO Rich Beyer, who has informed the Board of his decision to retire as CEO upon the appointment of a new CEO.
http://media.freescale.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=196520&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1685235&highlight=

GrammaTech, Inc., a manufacturer of source-code analysis tools, unveiled a next-generation software architecture visualization system. The new system incorporates a sophisticated new interface for viewing the relationships between software program elements. The system is integrated with CodeSonar, GrammaTech’s static-analysis tool for detecting defects.
http://www.grammatech.com/news/2012/releases/03-27-12-II.html

Green Hills Software, a leading vendor of embedded software solutions, is celebrating its 30-year anniversary.
http://www.ghs.com/news/20120327_ESC_30_years_industry_leadership.html

IAR Systems® announces that its high-performing C/C++ compiler and debugger tool suite IAR Embedded Workbench® now supports STM32F051.
http://www.iar.com/en/About/Pressroom/Press-releases/2012/4/IAR-Systems-supports-the-new-STM32-F0-low-cost-ARM-Cortex-M0-microcontrollers-from-STMicroelectronics/

Cloud Computing Q&A: IBM SmartCloud
http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2012/04/cloud-computing-qa-ibm-smartcloud/

Intel Corporation and Lava International Ltd., one of India’s fastest-growing mobile handset companies,  announced the general availability of the XOLO X900, the first smartphone with Intel inside. The device will be available to customers for purchase beginning 23rd April at a best-buy street price of approximately INR 22000.
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2012/04/18/xolo-x900-first-smartphone-with-intel-inside-launches-in-india-market

Real-time software provider IntervalZero, Inc., and Alta Data Technologies, a leading provider of MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC interface cards, software and Ethernet convertor/appliances, have formed a strategic partnership to provide real-time Microsoft Windows capabilities for avionics applications.
http://www.intervalzero.com/newsevents/intervalzero-alta-data-technologies-form-avionics-partnership/

Klocwork Inc, the global leader in automated source code analysis (SCA) solutions for developing more secure and reliable software, announced that Klocwork Insight™ has achieved an official Certificate of Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) Compatibility for attaining the highest level of CWE support that is currently offered by The MITRE Corporation's formal CWE Compatibility and Effectiveness Program.
http://www.klocwork.com/news/press-releases/releases/2012/PR-2012_03_26-Klocwork-Achieves-CWE-Compatibility-Certification.php

Lauterbach, a leading manufacturer of hardware assisted microprocessor development tools, has launched a new debug probe which provides state-of-the-art debug features for the new high-performance Broadcom XLP processor family. TRACE32® now supports all Broadcom multi-core processor families XLP, XLR and XLS.
http://www.lauterbach.com/frames.html?home.html

LDRA Certification Services (LCS), a division of LDRA, a leading provider of safety-critical software verification tools and software best practices announced a fully compliant IEC 62304 and ISO 14971 certification solution for medical device manufacturers.
http://www.ldra.com/en/component/content/article/11-news-press-releases/488-ldra-offers-iec-62304-and-iso-14971-certification-readiness-services-for-medical-devices

LynuxWorks™, Inc., a leader in the embedded safety and security software market, announced the availability of its board support package (BSP) and corresponding DO-178B level C artifacts for the Curtiss-Wright SVME/DMV-183 rugged single-board computer.
http://www.lynuxworks.com/corporate/press/2012/ruggedized-do-178b-rtos.php

MathWorks announced the launch of dedicated Model-Based Design consulting services for ISO 26262 projects.
http://www.mathworks.com/company/pressroom/MathWorks-Offers-Tailored-Services-for-ISO-26262-Projects-with-Model-Based-Design.html

Mentor Graphics Corporation (NASDAQ: MENT) announced the release of its next generation Mentor® Embedded Linux platform.
http://www.mentor.com/embedded-software/news/mentor-embedded-continues-to-simplify-linux

Micrium and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced the completion of a new book based on the uC/TCP-IPTM network stack and TI's highly popular Stellaris® EVALBOT robotic evaluation platform.
http://micrium.com/page/press_room/news/id:72

Microchip Technology Inc., a leading provider of microcontroller, analog and Flash-IP solutions,  announced the acquisition of Roving Networks, an innovator in low-power embedded Wi-Fi® and Bluetooth® solutions based in Los Gatos, Calif.
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en-us/press-release/microchip-acquires-roving-netw.html

MontaVista® Software, LLC, a leader in embedded Linux® commercialization services, announced the release of MontaVista Carrier Grade Linux for ARM.
http://mvista.com/press_release_detail.phpfid=news/2012/MontaVista_Announces_CGE_for_ARM.html&d=537

National Instruments announced NI LabVIEW software- and NI hardware-compatible mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, helping engineers integrate the latest mobile technology into their applications
http://digital.ni.com/worldwide/bwcontent.nsf/websearch/96793ae41c7e4c29862579dc004a9521?opendocument&nisrc=RSS-news-en

PRQA | Programming Research, a leader in static analysis, announces a major upgrade to QA•C++. Version 3.0 is a substantial new release of this leading static analysis tool for C++ environments that incorporates a sophisticated deep-flow dataflow analysis technology along with support for the major features in ISO C++ 2011.
http://www.programmingresearch.com/press-releases/2012/prqa-upgrades-qac-with-defect-and-security-vulnerability-detection-and-iso-c-2011-support/

PTC® (Nasdaq: PMTC) announced the latest version of its Windchill® product lifecycle management (PLM) software, which is now also integrated with PTC's recently acquired IntegrityTM software system lifecycle management technology.
http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/textsub.jsp?&im_dbkey=138771&icg_dbkey=21&lang=en

QNX Software Systems Limited, a global leader in software platforms for the in-car infotainment and telematics market, announced that it has joined the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC), an organization driving innovation for phone-centric car connectivity solutions.
http://www.qnx.com/news/pr_4955_1.html

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq:SNPS), a world leader in software and IP used in the design, verification and manufacture of electronic components and systems, announced availability of the latest release of its Synplify Pro® and Synplify® Premier FPGA synthesis tools.
http://synopsys.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1019

SYSGO won two new major deals in the railway area for which it received  the official certificate from TÜV SÜD certifying the qualification of PikeOS up to SIL 3 according to IEC 61508 and up to SIL 3-4 according to EN 50128.
 http://www.sysgo.com/news-events/press/press/details/article/sysgos-pikeos-receives-official-tuev-certificate/

Viosoft Corporation, a supplier of integrated embedded software solutions, announced the availability of the next generation of their award winning Arriba for Android development platform. The Arriba for Android environment fully enables the creation / porting of high performance applications for the Google Android software platform for the newest multiple core devices regardless of the architecture.
http://www.viosoft.com/?q=node/77

Wind River, a leader in embedded and mobile software, has expanded its portfolio of Android offerings with the introduction of automotive-market specific software. Wind River Solution Accelerator for Android, Automotive helps in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) device manufacturers shorten the development time of high-quality Android-based IVI systems. As the latest addition to the Wind River Solution Accelerator for Android series, the new automotive software adds to the existing medical, connectivity and user experience software collection.
 http://www.windriver.com/news/press/pr.html?ID=10601

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.