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... Read more →

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... Read more →

Enea Relinquishes Consulting Business

What Happened? Earlier today, Enea announced the divestment of its Swedish consulting companies to a subsidiary of Alten Group, a Paris-based global technical consulting company. As described in Enea’s press release by President and CEO Anders Lidbeck: “The divestment is part of our strategy to focus on our global software business…by divesting this unit we are refining Enea’s business and get the opportunity to invest in areas such as Linux, real-time operating systems, hardware environments, and product related services. We want to become the world leader for operating systems to the wireless broadband industry.” Alten Group’s acquisition of these companies,... Read more →

Telehealth Initiatives Driving Software Stack Requirements in Medical Devices

Mobility has been among the key influencers within the medical device market in recent years, the phenomenon helping to promote the advent of teleheath-related solutions, which rely heavily on care provided away from formal healthcare facilities. The concept of telehealth – which can be broadly defined as the incorporation of telecommunications technologies within health-related services – is expected to become increasingly popular as a means through which to decentralize medical services. More and more, medical professionals in developed regions are relying on patients and other in-home care providers to administer a variety of relatively straightforward services in an effort to... Read more →

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... Read more →

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... Read more →

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... Read more →

Setting Some Real Limits Around Real-Time

What Happened? Last week at the ARM TechCon conference, Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows Embedded Compact, expected to be released in June of 2012, will be updated with improved real-time performance and a smaller footprint. VDC’s View In the recent past, we have often discussed how the increasing amount of system resources available within many embedded systems has facilitated the adoption of larger footprint operating systems in many application classes once served by traditional real-time OSs. The significant presence of Windows “Enterprise” SKUs (restricted licenses of Microsoft’s desktop or server OSs) in the embedded market has typified... Read more →

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... Read more →

Embedded Project Starts Expected to Increase Year-Over-Year

Every year VDC conducts an extensive worldwide survey of embedded engineers and their development projects to better understand engineering requirements, preferences, and trends. This information is available from VDC in unique cross tabbed reports to offer readers a detailed, in-depth, view of engineers in the development project trenches. Quite frequently we receive requests from suppliers of the embedded community for statistics around company project starts as this metric is often seen as an important indicator of health and growth for the embedded industry. Based on VDC’s 2011 survey embedded engineers expect about a 15% increase in the aggregate in the... Read more →