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By Jakob Engblom
Normally when people are introduced to virtual platforms or full-system simulators like Wind River Simics, they jump at the ability to support software development before the hardware arrives. This is certainly an exciting prospect, as we all like shiny new things. What is often not as obvious is the extensive use of virtual platforms to support old, aging, and obsolete hardware.
By Mark Hermeling
This topic invariably comes up when talking to customers, unfortunately, there is not just one, but several primary use cases. There are multiple ways to look into the various use cases. The one I like best is to look at generic drivers. An alternative is to look at actual usages in the various industries.
By Paul Henderson
RTC Magazine recently published an article that I wrote called "Time to Rethink Software Testing for Embedded Devices". In it I describe some of the new techniques that are possible, and I believe necessary, to delivery high quality device software for embedded devices.
By Nikhil Chauhan
A recent report describes potential security vulnerabilities in devices running VxWorks. Researcher HD Moore claimed during a recent talk ( slides) that a quarter million devices accessible directly from the Internet were found to be vulnerable.
VxWorks has a very strong track record of offering secure products. However, we also realize that vulnerabilities can affect VxWorks, even if very infrequently. In those cases, Wind River will act quickly to address any issues. Regarding recent vulnerabilities, Wind River responded rapidly with patches and remediation steps in conjunction with a public announcement by the CERT Coordination Center on August 2, 2010. Once CERT notified Wind River, Wind River immediately assessed the alert and was instructed by CERT to release a synchronous public response. We're confident that our customers know that Wind River is committed to supporting its products with the highest quality and security standards.
By Paul Henderson
Here’s the final installment in my series about our embedded device software industry testing survey conducted in April-May 2010 with almost 900 respondents (see previous blog postings). If you’d like a copy of the full report in pdf, please drop me an email at paul.henderson@windriver.com and I will send it to you.
In this section of the survey we asked participants about what test tools they use today and where they are investing in test automation. Given the high cost of product failure, accelerating complexity and reduced schedules the industry is turning to more test automation in 2010 to help address these problems. The top investment are moving to new tools that can help test teams and their management better understand how well they are testing, better focus their efforts on the areas needing testing, and reduce cycle time through more automation.
By Paul Henderson
I’m continuing my series on our embedded device industry software testing survey conducted in April-May 2010 with almost 900 respondents (see previous blog posting). If you’d like a copy of the full report in pdf, please drop me an email at paul.henderson@windriver.com and I will send it to you.
By Paul Henderson
Here’s the next installment in my series on our embedded device software industry testing survey conducted in April-May 2010 with almost 900 respondents (see previous blog postings). If you’d like a copy of the full report in pdf, please drop me an email at paul.henderson@windriver.com and I will send it to you.
In this section of the survey we asked participants about how they measure software quality today, the metrics most often cited by survey respondents were reactive in nature such as tracking customer-reported failures and open defects rather than metrics that can help them prevent defects.
By Paul Henderson
Today I'm continuing my series on our embedded device software industry testing survey conducted in April-May 2010 with almost 900 respondents (see previous blog posting). If you’d like a copy of the full report in pdf, please drop me an email at paul.henderson@windriver.comand I will send it to you.
In part 2 of the survey we asked about schedule compression and what affect that was having on the device testing cycle. A majority of survey participants reported that market conditions have forced them to shorten their development schedules by as much as 18 months.
By Mark Hermeling
Looking forward to my trip to ESC Sillicon Valley next week. It is promising to be a busy show, especially since ESC is now combined with the Multicore expo. I just leafed through the agenda (in the form of a Nxtbook) and found a large number of sessions that I want to attend, experience show though that I'll probably be too busy talking to customer to attend sessions, which is a good problem to have of course.
I am hosting a 4 hour session (with several of my colleagues) on Multicore Demystified on Tuesday afternoon 2.30-7pm (there will be refresments!) in the Hilton Plaza Room. Do stop by either the session, or our booth at Multicore Expo for a chat if you want to brain storm about your next generation devices.
By Bill Graham
Our customer, Huawei, recently announced
they have been chosen to deploy Australia's first LTE network. This is
great news because Huawei's LTE base stations are built using VxWorks -
the VxWorks Platform for Networking Equipment to be exact.
It's also great news because we are starting to see the fruits of our customers' efforts come to reality and it stands as a validation of our investment in next generation networks. Moreover, this is the latest in a set of successes we've had with VxWorks in the networking space.
By Mike Deliman
A discussion about robotics was started up in an online discussion forum. A question was posed to the group:
Will unmanned vehicles eventually see duty in civilian applications?
Technology for unmanned military vehicles may eventually trickle down to commercial applications on Main Street. In the near future, autonomous vehicles will be used to deliver packages, collect garbage and fill potholes. http://bit.ly/bSrqfx
By Mark Hermeling
Ok, so I got a little bit of flak verbally, through email and Skype
for unilaterally declaring 2010 the year of embedded virtualization.
People seem to agree though, it is a hot technology, and a technology
that can change the way that we develop embedded systems.
By Mark Hermeling
Found a great article discussing the needs of virtualization in the telecom space.
The blog posting provides a good overview of technical capabilities
that are needed for a virtualization layer in the multicore space.
I agree with many of the points that the author brings forward: Isolation, separation, performance (both algorithmic as well as I/O), size, stability, inter-VM communication, flexibility. Many of these attributes are what differentiate an embedded hypervisor from IT-level hypervisors.
By Mark Hermeling
An interesting article by Dan Woods on Multi-core slowdown. The article tries to temper people's expectations with regards to mArticle: Multi-Core Slow Downulticore. The basic argument goes: A multicore processor has more raw processing power, but it requires the software load that runs on top of that processor to be able to use those cores, if not, the software could run at the same speed as single-core, or even slower.
One of the ways to use all the cores of course is multi-threaded programming in combination with an SMP operating system that can schedule over all the cores (SMP being Symmetric Multi Processing). Typically multi-threaded programs use multiple threads of execution and use synchronization primitives to make sure executions happens in the right order.
By Nikhil Chauhan
Wi-Fi Alliance launches a specification called Wi-Fi Direct that allows WLAN (Wireless LAN) devices to connect directly without an Access Point in between. Well, well, this appears to be a war of worlds between the WLAN and Bluetooth camps because this surely will fit the use cases of Bluetooth users. Does this also mean the end of WLAN Access Points (AP)? That's yet to be seen.
802.11 WLAN technology, as you might be aware of, offers two types of WLANs: 'Ad Hoc' and 'Infrastructure'. The 'Ad Hoc', termed as IBSS (Independent Basic Service Set), allows two WLAN stations to talk to each other directly. In other words, this is technology that exists today. So, what's the new hoopla around Wi-Fi Direct.
By Nikhil Chauhan
Ever wondered what it would be like without access to ever increasing means of connection?
Thanks to social networking sites that I am now in touch with my friends who used to exchange bicycles while riding to my fifth grade class.
In the past decade or so, we have come a long way. The social norms have been re-defined with applications such as social networking, M-commerce, E-Commerce, virtual world, remote health monitoring, E-readers, media streaming and storage, etc. All of these are resulting in an explosion in global internet traffic. Cisco forecasts that the annual global IP traffic will reach half a zettabyte in 2012.
By Jason Whitmire
The announcement one year ago that Symbian will be open sourced under a license free platform in 1HCY10 was heard around the world. If we are to believe game theory, the motivations behind this move are not a non-zero sum game but rather one of rational choice by its major stakeholders. But what does Open Source Symbian really mean for all of the players involved? Recent press commentary on the announcement might suggest that the leading ascendant contenders for the unifying Open Source platform – Android, Moblin, and LiMo – will somehow be cannibalized by a resurgent Symbian platform that is "free."
Indeed, in the mobile industry, invariably, there is always that big announcement that gains mindshare from industry pundits who can see the future (I recall WCDMA handset launches enjoyed similar attention in 2000). However I believe the opposite is true in the case of Symbian, that its demise as it nears an end to a natural product lifecycle will only be accelerated when it is made available under an open source license next year.
Here are 7 reasons why I believe this to be the case:
By Glenn Seiler
I just returned from the second annual OpenSAF Developers Days. This was a two-day event that included discussions on the latest developments in the project, some of the new standards that have been defined by the Service Availability Forum and the project's road map plans for the next release. The event was hosted by Huawei at their corporate headquarters in Shenzhen, China. One of the reasons the project choose to do the event in China this year is because they wanted it to be accessible to the ever-increasing number of development teams in Asia Pacific. From the turnout I would have to say this was a very successful event. The event was attended by major TEMs from Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, as well as by leading platform providers and operating system vendors. In case you are not familiar with OpenSAF, it is an open source implementation of the Service Availability Forum's (SAF) standard for application high availability. Specifically it is based on the Application Interface Specification (AIS) but also adds other capabilities that are key for high availability such as hardware interface and system management. The project is 100 percent open source and uses the LGPL license. The OpenSAF project is about two years old now, however it was changed to the LGPL license in January 2008 and since then has experienced significant growth. There were over 200 individual contributions in 2008, which is the sign of a strong, active community. OpenSAF is being developed into LTE gateways; IMS servers and other core and edge devices and some of the devices are in operator networks today.
By Mark Hermeling
Sometimes I get a chance to browse the web a bit, trying to find interesting tidbits. I ran into the following post from Hollis Blanchard. Hollis is an active participant in the world of virtualization, particularly on the Power architecture.
Hollis makes a point that I have been trying to get out as well: virtualization is clearly technology to look into when you are building multicore systems, but also when you are building unicore systems.
By Jessica Schieve
Did you know 25% to 50% of deployed device failures are due to software defects? This statistic should be nowhere near this high, considering there are a few very good solutions out there today to help reduce the number of defects in software code.
In the networking and telecom industry, if equipment fails and brings down the network it can cost a service provider or operator millions of dollars in lost revenue or even lost customers (read this white paper to learn more). If you are an equipment provider and the failure is associated with your application, the lost revenue cost could very well be passed on to you. And count on the network failure to be all over the headline news like the one that hit the New York Times.
By Glenn Seiler
Green, green, everything is green. It is spring now, the hills around Silicon Valley are bright and green and everything in the yard is in full bloom. Even in our jobs everything is green in these times. You can’t watch TV or listen to the news or read a press release without hearing about Green. And of course this is all for very good reasons – even if we were in a good economy we would still have to start taking measures to reduce the energy we consume and conserve power and resources.
You may have heard a lot about Green Telecom, and like many of today’s catch phrases it can mean a lot of different things. One aspect of Green Telecom that you read a lot about is the use of alternative energy to drive base stations and wireless infrastructure, especially in emerging nations. There is a great video from Ericsson on YouTube that discusses this, and that is part of a larger sequence of videos on Green Telecom. They describe using solar energy and bio-fuels in "off-grid" countries and how people who only make a few dollars a week are willing to spend some of that money to have communication services available.
By Glenn Seiler
What do they all mean and how are they different…
I often get asked what is the difference between the LiMo Foundation and the Open Handset Alliance, or what is the difference between the SCOPE Alliance Carrier Grade OS and Carrier Grade Linux or the difference between SAF and OpenSAF on the infrastructure side of the business. Unless you are really close to the Telecom industry in some capacity that is directly involved with one of those organizations, it can all seem very confusing as well as a bit redundant. In actuality there is very little overlap and each organization fits a very specific role in the ecosystem. First, it is important to note that both the maturity and the objective of the consortia are quite different between the terminal (or handset) side of the business and the infrastructure side. Another key distinction is what I like to call “solutions-based” consortia and “open standards” based consortia. Almost all of the hand-set consortia getting hype in the press today are “solutions-based” consortia such as the LiMo Foundation and the Open Handset Alliance. These consortia are not focused on creating standards that drive wide interoperability. Rather their objective is to drive a specific solution to market and preferably, to gain a market advantage while doing that. And on top of that, only members of the consortia have access to the solution(s). These consortia are really more of a large business development group, each member company focused on how they can drive business through the consortia. Now, there is nothing particularly wrong with that and it is an important part of growing a nascent market, as long as you don’t confuse it with developing standards. The infrastructure part of telecom is a bit more mature, leveraging off of the wireline business that has existed for nearly a century. The primary objective of open-standards based consortia in the infrastructure market is usually to define standards that ultimately create an even playing field for all companies in a market, whether they are members of the consortia or not. The solutions-based consortia (LiMo and OHA) create implementations or reference platforms for a specific set of software that may be open source or proprietary and is usually a combination of both.
By Paul Parkinson
A few months ago I commented on some of the technical developments in passenger in-flight systems ('In-flight Internet access...and mobile phones too?'). In recent weeks, there have been some rapid developments, not on the technical front, but in terms of regulation and operation, with announcements from the UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom and the European Commission.
On the 26th March, Ofcom published the results of its consultation on the use of Mobile Communications on Aircraft (MCA). The executive summary summarizes the findings and Ofcom's decisions, but the full statement (PDF) provides much more detail, revealing a mixture of social, operational, safety and security issues.
By Paul Parkinson
I read a business article in the Economist ('Mobile Phones on planes - Your call') during the Christmas holidays about the current developments in passenger in-flight systems, specifically the provision of Internet data access and the potential to support mobile (cell) phone voice calls during flight.
The article reports on trials of a Wi-Fi data service by JetBlue and Quantas, and a forthcoming mobile phone voice call trial by Air France (which follows on from the mobile phone SMS text messaging described in this Air France press release); it then goes on to discuss the social impact and acceptability of Internet data access and mobile voice calls during flight, which makes interesting reading.
By Jason Whitmire
All will agree that mobile Linux suffers from fragmentation today, and that fragmentation
• creates significant challenges to Linux adoption in mobile phones (lack of interoperability et. al.)
• presents barriers to innovation
• increases the carrier cost to Linux terminal deployment.
For Linux to succeed in the mobile market, we need to minimize fragmentation and its resulting incompatibility. In the early days of the PC revolution, this type of incompatibility was similarly rampant, and the Wintel monopoly provided the standard. More importantly, the Wintel monopoly created the incentive to rally around the standard.
But suggesting that the industry set up Google as the mobile Linux gatekeeper, including issuing all the keys to the various feature phone middleware/applications framework kingdoms (which account for about 90% of all phones deployed today), to take on the monumental role of software guardian for mobile Linux, is possibly antithetical to the open source movement, regardless of Google’s motto. And perhaps this is not the role that Google ultimately seeks in the mobile market. Indeed, there are multiple thrusts to Google’s mobile terminal strategy, all of which are underpinned by the principle of radically improving the efficiency and experience of the end-user’s mobile internet time.
Continue Reading »By Jason Whitmire
It's easy to take the fragmentation of the mobile phone industry for granted. With over 40 different proprietary and Open Source Middleware and Application Frameworks addressing Ultra Low Cost, Entry, Feature and Smart Phone market segments, software costs have exploded and are expected to hit some 25% of the entire Bill of Materials on a mobile phone this year. No wonder mobile network operators are asking the industry to stop the madness and consolidate around a limited number of pre-defined platforms.
Many operators very clearly see Microsoft, Symbian and one to two versions of Linux as the only future software platforms that will comprise their terminal roadmap. Linux is unique in that most Tier 1 OEMs – with the exception of Nokia – plan to gradually replace the proprietary software addressing the feature phone segments (where by far the most volumes of phones are shipped today and in the future).
With this in mind, two juggernauts – Open Handset Alliance and LiMo – promise to alter the landscape for the third software platform – Linux – for good. The LiMo Foundation’s goal is to defragment the Linux handset market by creating a Linux-based mobile platform that lowers development costs, increases flexibility, and yields differentiated devices. The goal of the Open Handset Alliance is to deliver solutions to enable complete open software, open devices, and an open ecosystem. Are these movements destined for perpetual conflict?
Continue Reading »By Paul Tingey
Amongst all the news (and some would say hype) about Fixed Mobile Convergence, there is another market dynamic being played out which may lead to an alternative form of change. Fixed-to-Mobile Substitution (or FMS) aims to increase the proportion of calls made from traditional 2G/3G mobile handsets at the expense of those made from other devices such as fixed lines or dual-mode (or converged) handsets.
In reality this is a trend started by consumers themselves who, attracted by falling mobile call rates, have begun to use their mobile phones for all their voice calls whether they are outside of or within their homes. This substitution effect is most noticeable (for fixed line operators) amongst new users (i.e. in new households) who are often opting not to have a fixed line phone installed at all.
By Warren Kurisu
Previously, our CMO John Bruggeman blogged about the importance of Service and Support for Linux. He called it the killer app for Linux.
We recently announced our new VxWorks and Wind River Linux platforms, which integrate the Wind River Advanced Networking Technologies. This technology portfolio is a best-of-breed combination of technologies developed by Wind River and those acquired from Interpeak. That is great news for VxWorks and Wind River Linux customers, but what about Interpeak customers using Integrity?
By Paul Tingey
Last week saw Carrier Grade Linux take a further step forward with the release of the latest version of the specification. The CGL 4.0 document, released on 26th February 2007, is the result of work by individuals in many organizations and heralds a new level of collaboration between all those involved in the Carrier Grade equipment business.
CGL 4.0 is the first version of the Carrier Grade Linux specification to be released by the Linux Foundation, a recently created group formed by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group.
By Paul Tingey
Telecoms can be a somewhat dry subject at times so when I recently tripped across a news release which made me giggle I decided it was my responsibility to share it with you.
BT recently carried out a survey (Starkers Talkers) asking what British people did while they were using the phone. Most interesting (in a purely scientific way) is the fact that 49% of British people are happy to talk on the telephone while naked in the privacy of their own home.
Before I go further I should save the blushes of myself and other Brits by adding that, whilst the results are from a survey of British phone users, I can think of no good reason why they would not be similarly valid in other parts of the world. I do not believe that the British would be any more predisposed to naked telephony than other similar cultures.
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