Wind River Blog Network

Wind River Expertise Recognized with GENIVI Award

By Franz Walkembach

The Automotive group at Wind River is quite an impressive team…Consider this: hundreds of engineers and decades of successfully completed projects have helped Wind River carefully foster the development in this industry. We not only created trusted connections with customers and partners, but we’ve also stayed ahead of key trends, riding a wave of open source innovation right as it started to build momentum. Fast forward to today…our ongoing efforts to advance the automotive industry has reached another great achievement – Wind River has received the Most Valuable Contributor Award from the GENIVI Alliance.

Continue reading >>

Analyze this…Accelerate that…

By Steve Konish

In just three short months, the engineering team at Wind River has added new, amazing capabilities to the Wind River Intelligent Network Platform.  These enhancements to the platform allow applications to go even deeper and faster than ever before.    

When we first launched the platform, it included two data plane engines for packet acceleration and pattern matching.  The two engines together created an incredible software-enabled solution to provide high-performance deep packet inspection (DPI) for network applications.  We’ve now added a third data plane engine, the Flow Analysis Engine (FAE), which allows applications to incorporate even greater network intelligence.  The Flow Analysis Engine offers complete visibility into network traffic in real time, including flow classification, protocol and application identification, and metadata extraction.

Continue reading >>

The Yocto Project...Striking the balance of speed and stability

By Davide Ricci

On my flight back to the Bay Area, I was reflecting on my memories of Barcelona at the Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2012. I’m recalling my time on stage, during the opening panel of the Yocto Project Dev Day, with my friends and colleagues from Texas Instruments, Intel, Jupiter, and ... Mentor. Surprised at the mix of panelists? Well, consider this - the power of the Yocto Project comes from the fact that companies across the entire ecosystem are all sitting together at the same table with one common agenda, one common goal in mind.

This year’s LinuxCon Europe seemed to burst with attendees! Many developers who flew in from all over Europe, North America, and Asia also attended Dev Day (held the day right after LinuxCon). Attendance has grown from previous Dev Days and the sea of excited developers nodding their heads in agreement and solidarity at our Dev Day sessions added to the momentum behind the Yocto Project and its goal to drive real change. 

Continue reading >>

Poll Results are in...Network Intelligence Heading to Edge and Core

By Steve Konish

If you’re an information junkie like I am, informative charts and polls always catch the eye. Polls are great for capturing an instant snapshot of public opinion on a specific topic. By no means are they scientific. However, they do give us some useful data to gauge whether or not other people share the same opinions we do.

We decided to conduct our own poll related to network intelligence. During a recent Wind River webinar, titled Triple Crown of Network Goes to Software, we took a poll of 200 attendees. If you missed the webinar, not to worry, you can view the archived version. The poll asked the audience where they think network intelligence is initially most needed. The respondents, mostly network equipment providers, gave us these results:

Continue reading >>

Just minutes to a faster, smarter and more secure network

By Stephen Konish

A few minutes…and you’re on the fast path to building the next generation of faster, smarter and more secure network applications. Three minutes – that’s all it typically takes to install key components of the new Wind River Intelligent Network Platform. 

So, let’s take the next few minutes to look at  an evolution taking place for our networking and communications customers and Wind River’s software solutions for this market.  Tens of billions of connected devices continue to generate massive amounts of traffic and security threats are on the rise. In order to better manage the flood of traffic and handle these threats, greater network intelligence and security (without sacrificing high performance) is needed. On top of that, network products need to be scalable to handle future growth. Wind River is rising to meet these challenges and this evolution starts with the newly launched Wind River Intelligent Network Platform.  It is an integrated and optimized embedded software platform consisting of the critical runtime components needed to build high-performance intelligent network products.  So, what does that mean for the customer?

Continue reading >>

Simplifying M2M

By Brian Vezza

Today, Wind River is taking a significant step forward in simplifying machine-to-machine (M2M) development for our customers.  We announced the Wind River Intelligent Device Platform which builds upon Wind River’s operating system and tools leadership with M2M middleware to make it easier to design, build, and operate M2M or smart connected devices.

As I’ve written before, M2M devices require a range of capabilities including connectivity, manageability, and security among others.  The complexity and fragmentation in this space makes it much more difficult than it should be for the industry to reach its potential.  Designing products with a “do-it-yourself” (DIY) approach is tough and an M2M software platform makes a lot of sense.  After all, why recreate the wheel connecting, securing, and managing devices from scratch when you can make use of a software platform for these foundational capabilities and focus on your differentiators instead? 

Continue reading >>

Wind River Linux and the Yocto Project…Sowing the seeds of change

By Davide Ricci

The year was 1998, I was walking through the aisles of a book store on campus at the Politecnico of Milano and a box of software caught my eye. It looked unconventional, sort of "homemade" and on its cover was an image of a man with a red hat.

It was Red Hat 5.2, and the box was big, much bigger than the bunch of DVDs inside would have justified. And heavy. Once I cracked it open, I figured out why – it included a thick manual that contained seemingly endless pages of instructions and mysterious lists of software packages.

It was 1998, and open source was starting to make its first serious steps into a world which, only a handful of years later would change dramatically. A revolution was about to begin.

Continue reading >>

The Yocto Project: What It Is and What It Isn't

By Davide Ricci

As I work heavily with embedded Linux on a daily basis, I’m often asked about the Yocto Project.  While the Yocto Project is gaining traction and folks in the industry are generally aware of it, there still exists a bit of unfamiliarity of the details. What exactly is the Yocto Project? Is it a Linux distribution?  How would I use it in my embedded Linux projects? 

Let’s dig in. The Yocto Project is an open source collaboration project that provides sorely needed standardized, high-quality infrastructure, tools and methodologies to help decrease the complexity and increase the portability of embedded Linux implementations. It is not a Linux distribution similar to what Wind River and other Linux distributors provide.  

A lot of vendors across the hardware and software ecosystem participate in the Yocto Project, and together this community is helping embedded Linux developers realize greater cross-platform compatibility and component interoperability.   How the heck does the Yocto Project accomplish that?

Continue reading >>

Open source in Medical Devices: Part of the Cure or Part of the Disease?

By Ido Sarig

The Economist recently published a very interesting article on the merits of open source in medical device development, which raises some questions and sparks an important discussion. 

In general, it is more common to see open source adoption in non-regulated industries. However, we are seeing it more and more in regulated industries primarily because it encourages rapid innovation at far lower costs.  That said, it is important to caution those in the regulated industries (aerospace & defense, medical, industrial automation, energy, automotive) towards embracing open source concepts without investing in lifecycle management tools to support the building of safe and effective devices.  [Proprietary software on the other hand, is a better fit for companies that design devices in environments where changes are few and far in between. Proprietary software also enables better control of the ecosystem, the lower the stack you go.]

As the Economist puts it, “exposing a design results in safe products.”  Maybe…Designing a device or ecosystem with safety in mind, results in safer products, hence the need for “design for safety.”  The FDA mandates a safe and effective design for any devices that gets approved in the US market -- this requires companies to have better control of their ecosystem.  Done proactively, this is an efficient method for product development; however, done reactively, companies incur a lot of costs and overheads trying to make open source fit.

Continue reading >>

The GENIVI Universe

By Franz Walkembach

The Star Wars saga was one of those rare movies series that managed to create a newstandard for an entire industry. It can leave you fascinated for the whole following week after you’ve seen it. You don’t even need an expensive video system to enjoy its rich and powerful action. While the automotive industry constantly hopes to wow consumers with state of art technologies and ever expanding capabilities, one has to wonder: “Does an automotive version of Star Wars exist? Something that creates a new standard for all of us to be measured against?” Oh yes, it exists and there is nothing alien about it.

It’s called GENIVI (a concatenation of Geneva, and the acronym IVI), and it is a non-profit industry alliance committed to driving the broad adoption of an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) open-source development platform. The alliance aims to align requirements, deliver reference implementations, offer certification programs, and foster a vibrant open-source IVI community. See? A new standard.

Continue reading >>

Got DPDK? We Can Help You!

By Glenn Seiler

If you’ve purchased a communications processor from Intel in the last year, there is a strong likelihood you are familiar with the Intel® Data Plane Development Kit. Intel DPDK, as it is commonly referred to here at Wind River, is a set of libraries that help applications transmit and receive packet data as efficiently as possible on Intel Xeon multicore processors.  System architects and designers of networking applications can leverage the Intel DPDK to accelerate packets through layer 3 to create a fast path for packets to build high performance applications.  Mastering the fast path opens the door to a world of new high-value intelligent applications like deep packet inspection (DPI), and security.

But mastering the fast path is no easy task.  This can be especially true if you are considering migration from another architecture or protocol stack to take advantage of the increased power of Intel architecture (IA). Nearly every communications company I have talked to over the last few years is starting to consider Intel architecture for data plane applications as well as the traditional applications and control plane typically that IA is used for. The good news is you don’t have to make this transition  alone.  Wind River is now making our team of technical experts available to support any Intel DPDK project regardless of underlying operating system.  Yes, Wind River will support Intel DPDK application development on any Linux whether it is Wind River Linux, your own in-house distribution, or a third party commercial Linux distribution. Check out our latest news.

Continue reading >>

Linux Foundation’s License Compliance Standard, SPDX, Offers Real Value

By Mark Gisi

There is only one criterion that determines whether a piece of software is open source software (OSS) - the license from which you receive the software under. If you are granted rights under an open source license such as the BSD, Apache or GPL, it is open source software.

Although the open source movement has other core pillars, which include the power of the community development model, peer recognition, and community review (the many eyeballs affect), there is no movement without the license.

Open source developers do not ask for much for the use of their software. What little they do request is described by a few conditional obligations listed in the license. In exchange for satisfying those obligations, the user is granted certain rights with respect to copying, modifying and/or redistributing the developer’s creation. Obligations may include a requirement to pass along the source code, provide certain notifications (e.g., modification notices) or just simply provide attribution. The task of satisfying the respective license obligations is often referred to as license compliance.

Continue reading >>

Wind River and Android – 5 great years, with many more to come

By Dan Noal

It was 5 years ago this week that I got an email from our CEO who had just met with Andy Rubin and Rich Miner at the Googleplex. Google had invited us to talk privately and confidentially about what would become Android.  Other companies were already on board, and they asked us to join the small group of companies collaborating with them as part of the nascent Open Handset Alliance. They talked big about disrupting the entire mobile phone ecosystem and solving the fragmentation problem with so many competing Linux based phone stacks emerging at that time. They painted a vision where open source Android would dominate the mobile phone space and migrate to adjacent markets.  We knew that they had credibility from Danger, we knew that Google had tremendous momentum and power they could leverage.  We discussed it internally, and without much debate we replied “where do we sign?” and started to roll up our sleeves. 

Continue reading >>

Wind River Showcases Yocto and GENIVI in IVI

By Franz Walkembach

We're looking forward to an upcoming global GENIVI all hands meeting that brings together major OEMs like BMW, Peugeot, Citroen, Nissan or Renault as well as automotive Tier 1 companies like Continental Automotive, Denso, Delphi and Bosch. Later this month, these organizations will gather for several days near Paris to discuss the current state of affairs and latest developments from the GENIVI Alliance. Some of the key things we’ll be discussing at this industry event include issues like connectivity, security software in automobiles, Android and detailed findings from expert technology workgroups such as the BIT (baseline integration team) team or the automotive expert group.

As an exciting show of technology capabilities, Wind River will be demonstrating the first examples of a GENIVI and Yocto-based in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) platform. 

Continue reading >>

 

An M2M Step in the Right Direction

By Brian Vezza

Today is an exciting day for companies looking to implement M2M-based devices and services, as well as for Wind River.  We have announced a collaboration with Digi International to deliver a new family of Digi-branded machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions that will enable us to significantly expand our M2M footprint.  Digi M2M Solution Builder kit will be based on Wind River software, Intel architecture and the iDigi Device Cloud.  Digi is a recognized leader in the M2M space and we are extremely pleased to be working with them.

I’ve written in past blog posts about “do-it-yourself” (DIY) M2M, the complexity involved, and hinted about a “better way.”  Today’s announcement is a big step in that direction.  Together, Digi, Wind River, and Intel are making it much easier for companies to cost effectively develop and deploy M2M-based (or “intelligent connected embedded”) solutions. 

Continue reading >>

Detecting security problems – using static analysis to catch them early and less expensively

By Bill Graham

In my previous post I discussed the potential benefits in quality and costs that static analysis brings to software development. In addition to common coding errors, many of the bugs found by static analysis are potential security defects as well.  Buffer overflow, OS command injection, unrestricted string format and integer overflows are among the top 25 most dangerous security coding defects (according to the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWS) from the MITRE organization). These types of defects are common in C and C++ and are dangerous to correct operation in general but also pose significant security threats – often because the right exploit can lead to arbitrary code execution on the target. Once an attacker can execute code on your device, they can gain complete control, which might include reflashing the firmware, installing malware or rewriting the command and control software.

Continue reading >>

Using Static Analysis to Improve Product Quality, Earlier and Cheaper

By Bill Graham

Fixing bugs is expensive. Fixing bugs is more expensive the later you leave them, in fact, its been shown to cost a magnitude higher with each major phase of development. The famous defect cost chart from Capers Jones shows the cost of a bug going from $25 at the coding phase to $16,000 in development.  Not only that, but most of the bugs are introduced into the system at this stage yet very little of them are found. Logic says we should fix them earlier to save money.

Continue reading >>

Android Security – making sense of all the choices

By Chris Buerger

Last week’s public release of the Security Enhanced (SE) Android project and associated source code is hailed by many as an important foundational step to add a new set of options to create secure Android devices. While the recent release of the code base by the National Security Agency (NSA) is familiar territory for Android experts such as Wind River who have been designing and implementing comprehensive security layers to a wide spectrum of Android devices for a few years now, the portrayal of this development in the media as an all-encompassing security solution grossly oversimplifies the complex subject matter that Android security represents.

Simply speaking, compiling and flashing the SE Android code base on to your Nexus S will not make it completely 'secure.'

Wind River has been enabling Android devices for close to five years now. Based on that experience and over a decade of pioneering mobile Linux-based devices, four key security-related points stand out.

Continue reading >>

 

Wind River Linux: The Thrills Just Keep Coming

By Paul Anderson

When I joined Wind River over ten years ago, there were many in the company and in the embedded industry that saw open source software with extreme skepticism: too big, too slow, too risky, too expensive to maintain, and so forth. Over the years, the industry at large has figured out that open source software, particularly Linux, has an essential role in the embedded ecosystem, just as real time operating systems, software development tools, test frameworks, and many other things play a critical role in developing and deploying embedded device. But, the role of Linux embedded development represents something else, a fundamental change in the way people think and act as it relates to how software is developed, deployed and maintained in the embedded space. Linux is different.

Continue reading >>

Introducing Performance Studio

By Emeka Nwafor

What is Performance Studio? Is it:

1. Some kind of hair product

2. A new "clinic" for MLB players

3. Full name: : Wind River Linux Performance Studio for Intel® Architecture; a new add-on product for Wind River Linux that helps you get the most performance out of your embedded Linux device software running on Intel hardware 

If you correctly answered "3", give yourself a round of applause.

Our portfolio of development solutions have long addressed a broad set of embedded device development concerns in the areas of system definition, bring-up, software construction, integration & test, and maintaining and retro-fitting embedded device software and hardware. Now, with the introduction of Performance Studio, we not only have the broad development solutions portfolio but also further extend it with capabilities that enable us to go deeper into the platform and obtain the best performance out of embedded Linux software running on Intel® Core™, Xeon™, and Atom™ processors. 

Continue reading >>

 

Adding Android to the Embedded Mix

By Dan Noal

Wind River just hosted a webinar titled, “Adding Android to the Embedded Mix" and saw a great attendee turnout. There were a broad spectrum of companies represented, not just the traditional smartphone and tablet manufacturers.  This is a clear indication of the interest to use in Android for devices in all market segments.  In fact, one of the most frequently asked questions is, what other embedded markets have you seen or do you see having an Android play? 

Wind River has been working with customers on Android for a wide range of applications and markets, and our efforts continue to expand.  We’ve worked on many projects including enterprise IP phones from the likes of Avaya and in-vehicle infotainment systems from Clarion.  

Increasingly, Android is finding its way into markets like point-of-sale, fit-to-purpose industrial style tablets, and other device categories where a strongly supported application framework and active application ecosystem are important elements of platform choice. 

Continue reading >>

 

Secure Mobility Message Resonates at MILCOM 2011

By Chip Downing

MILCOM 2011 last week in Baltimore, MD was not only educational, but it was a watershed event.   Last year, it was a “coming out” party for custom Android devices; this year however, was the year where many companies are now using COTS hardware and software to their fullest extent, along the entire supply chain, from core to edge and user devices.   I believe this COTS adoption is driven by two powerful forces – the exploding capabilities of commercial tablet devices, and global military budget pressures.

The vastly increasing power and capability of commercially available mobile communications devices is simply amazing. Just a few years ago, almost everything in this military communications space was purpose built, and most commercial products were simply inadequate to address the rugged and complex system demands of military communications systems.   As seen at MILCOM 2011, this has officially changed -- COTS end-to-end communications domains rule.

So if all of these MILCOM vendors are not making customized hardware and software, what are they doing?   Wind River had over 500 people visit its booth at MILCOM this year, and most of the discussions I had with both suppliers and end users at the show were about increasing device security and leveraging high volume COTS components in demanding deployment scenarios.

Continue reading >>

Cloud to Service Endpoints – The Missing Link

By Paul Anderson

I remember as a kid I was fascinated with phones. The idea that you could pick up the phone, dial it, and talk to someone on the other end was pretty neat. And… at the time, a phone was an elegantly designed electro-mechanical work of art, and it was fun to take them apart to try and figure out how they worked. I could understand how the phone itself worked, but as a kid, what happened after those two wires headed off to the pole was somewhat of a mystery to me. Eventually I came to understand the massive infrastructure that allowed reliable telephone service into the home to be possible. Hats off to Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.

When you think of a basic phone, it seems like such a simple thing. It can receive, it can transmit, and it can provide bidirectional signaling. Receiving and transmitting is obviously important, and it took a while for folks to figure out how to do both simultaneously without a bunch of extra wires and things. Signaling is equally important. The user of the device needs to know when someone is trying to contact them, and to be able to establish contact with someone else out on the network. A phone is actually a very clever thing, particularly when one thinks of what people did with what they had at the time, particularly in a world before the transistor.

But, what is a phone really? It is a service gateway. In its most simple form, it provides telephone service. That service then allows connectivity to other services, like the ability to call the plumber when your sink gets clogged, or order a pizza. Quite amazing! 

Continue reading >>

 

Linux in Medical Devices

By Ken Herold

Linux is the operating system of choice for a wide range of medical devices, from vital sign monitors to hospital bedside “infotainment” systems to complex imaging and scanning equipment. Yet not all Linux is alike. Because patients’ lives may be in the balance, software used in medical devices must meet stringent regulatory guidelines to assure that it will perform as promised, and the provider must be able to pass audits of its development methodologies. Trying to cobble together solutions from pure Linux without commercial support puts the burdens of testing, validation, documentation and compliance on the device manufacturers and their developers – an onerous, time consuming and complex process that can turn “free” Linux into a very costly proposition.

There are, of course, commercial vendors of Linux who provide value-added, stabilized versions of the open source software, along with board support packages. Service, support and documentation levels, however, vary widely among them.  Some chip vendors provide software solely to drive processor sales and with many vendors, the relationship ends with the sale.

Continue reading >>

Unmanned Systems: More Reports of Security Vulnerabilities

By Joe Wlad

By now, you’ve likely heard the latest report of security holes in unmanned ground control systems. This time, a key-logging virus has been found on one or more hard drives at the Nevada operations center for the Predator and Reaper unmanned vehicles. While the investigation is ongoing and impact of the virus is determined, the real concern is just how vulnerable are these systems and what might happen next? This is not the first time security gaps have been uncovered in unmanned vehicles. In 2009, Iraqi insurgents were able to intercept unencrypted video feeds from operational Predator UAVs using inexpensive software downloaded from the Internet.

People in the public and private sector are expressing deep concern over how things like this can happen and to how address these problems. As for the “how we got here” question, it’s relatively simple to answer. Essentially, the unmanned air vehicle has been a victim of its own success. Many of these programs, Global Hawk, Predator and others were never designed to be deployed in operational environments. In fact, the DoD in many cases, sought to build these vehicles as prototypes or proof-of-concepts. When the programs were awarded, the diligent contractors for these vehicles used the best of commercial technology to demonstrate the capabilities. The hope was that successful demonstrations would lead to production contracts where the systems could be designed to meet specific security and safety requirements.

Continue reading >>

Linux, Common Criteria and OS Protection Profiles

By Paul Parkinson

In 2011, computer and network security news stories, which were previously the preserve of specialist journals and blogs, have become commonplace in the mainstream media. There are now many different types of threat, which are sometimes categorised into hacktivist, e-crime and most recently, advanced persistent threats (APT). Whilst some of these attacks have exploited zero day vulnerabilities, many of these attacks have simply taken advantage of the fact that systems have not been configured securely for their deployment environment.

To use an easy–to-understand analogy, consider a wireless router. This device will generally be shipped from the factory in the most flexible, open communication configuration, which will have many or all of the security options disabled. This will be fine if the wireless router is intended to be used as a free public Wi-Fi access point (e.g., cyber cafe), but not for a private business or home office if you want to prevent drive-by wireless hacks).  In these cases, wireless encryption such as WPA2 will need to be enabled for the router and clients, and access may even need to be restricted to specific clients via MAC addresses, etc.

Continue reading >>

Feeling the need for speed and making it happen

By Mark Guinther

“I feel the need…The need for speed!!”  Quoting old movies is where my similarities to Tom Cruise end, but it is a relevant line for today’s networking equipment.  Faster applications is one of the last steps in getting faster results to subscribers, resulting in happy subscribers which means happy service providers, happy service providers mean happy equipment providers, and… well, you get the point: Everybody is happier when their network runs faster. However, it’s getting tougher given the ever-increasing flood of data on today’s networks.    

Bigger, faster pipes are a start, but you can have the best infrastructure plumbing in the world and still have poor performance if your system and applications are a bottleneck. 

Continue reading >>

 

Platform Wars

By Dan Noal

In recent weeks, we’ve seen two seismic shifts in the mobile and tablet markets. First, Google announced its intent to acquire Motorola Mobility and a few days later, HP announced that it would discontinue producing webOS-based phones and the TouchPad. 

Google’s move to buy a hardware manufacturer has long been speculated in the media.  Motorola Mobility had previously been reported as a possible target, so Google’s move isn’t entirely surprising. However, after nearly 3 years since the public launch of Android, the question is why now?  Consider the comments of Android industry partners (e.g. Samsung, HTC, Verizon) mentioning the need to protect the Android ecosystem from IP lawsuits that threaten Android’s growth.  Now add the fact that Motorola Mobility has grown a significant patent portfolio in the mobile space over the past decade. 

Still, it is interesting to wonder about the long-term vision. 

Continue reading >>

 

Are Penguins Ready to Fly?

By Nithya Ruff

This year, Vancouver, British Columbia was the site for LinuxCon North America 2011, where Linux celebrated its 20^th anniversary.  Vancouver is normally known for its rainy and gray weather, but the Linux gods must have been shining on the Linux celebrations because the weather was spectacular!  In the same year that Wind River celebrates its 30 anniversary, it got me thinking about if this was a forecast of things to come.  

Turning 20 is a coming of age milestone and that can truly be said of Linux.   I see a well-established ecosystem of upstream open source projects, successful commercial companies based on open source and an increasing number of industries that are adopting Linux.   Business models are maturing and there is a good understanding of the value that commercial vendors bring to creating adoption and making it safe to use Linux.  There seems to increasingly be a process for working across and within groups.  Look at what the Linux Foundation does. It provides an umbrella organization for collaboration projects like the kernel, Meego and Yocto to organize and move things forward and advocate for the Linux community very effectively.  It also provides a physical venue for people to gather and meet face to face and create vision and directions. 

Continue reading >>

Fish Finders, Embedded Linux and Graphics

By Paul Anderson 

Here I am up at rustic cabin in Northern Wisconsin enjoying some time off the grid. I feel like Ralph Waldo Emerson getting in touch with nature, and exploring Transcendentalism, except for one minor detail: I have a wireless connection. Emerson was quoted as saying “Nature hates calculators,” and I’m not sure what he would think about the billions of connected devices scattered across the landscape. Not to worry, I’ll be back unplugged soon enough and enjoying some quality time in the “digital free zone.”

I tried my hand at some fishing this week on the little lake we are on. Even though I’m a gadget person in general, I am a very low tech fisherman. With the help of my brother in law, my kids and I just fished the old fashioned way, with a pole, hook, bobber, and worm. It didn’t take long to find the fish, or for the fish to find us. However, there are plenty of high tech anglers out there that use everything from advanced weather forecast maps, fish finders, and even underwater cameras. I find all that technology interferes with the peace of mind that I am looking for when doing things like fishing, but perhaps that is because I am fully immersed in technology as a career.

Modern high end fish finders, GPS units, and other electronics equipment used in the outdoors have become much more sophisticated. The users of deeply embedded devices have come to expect a graphical user interface, low power consumption, and reliability. A similar trend can be found across a spectrum of deeply embedded devices, including industrial control panels, medical equipment, military applications, and of course, consumer equipment.

Continue reading >>