Wind River Blog Network

Beyond the Smart Grid: Intelligent Energy

By Jeff Fortin

This past week I was at DistribuTECH 2012 and was able to see firsthand how companies supplying to the energy market are responding to Smart Grid requirements and adapting to the market needs that the Smart Grid is creating. There was a diverse array of companies in attendance demonstrating their interpretation of the future of energy -- from ABB, a veteran to the energy market, to Ceiva, who has developed an innovative approach to home energy management using their familiar electronic picture frame technology.

Wind River demonstrated a model of a wind turbine system that was controlled by the Bachmann M1 Controller System. The M1 Controller System includes modules for Digital and Analog I/O,  Network Connectivity, Fieldbuses, Safety, and a Processor Module. The Bachmann M1 Processor Module provides a robust, scalable and flexible solution for applications ranging from classical PLCs to enabling connectivity to the IT cloud, and leverages a range of Intel processors and runs Wind River’s VxWorks RTOS. By combining the processing suite offered by Intel and Wind River, the M1 can be used in applications requiring any combination of PLCs, motion controllers, connectivity and data management. The M1 is not limited to wind turbine applications -- it could be used in range of energy applications that require a safe, secure and reliable intelligent device.

   

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 >>

VxWorks Cert Now Supports ARM!

By Alex Wilson

Aerospace and defense has relied on rugged embedded vehicle mounted computers for many years, but as devices become more mobile, and with increased demand to reduce SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power), ARM-based computers become an interesting alternative.  Added to that is the wealth of functionality available in ARM devices that make it a good choice, not only to reduce SWaP in the core CPU, but to reduce overall chipset sizes to a single SoC.

If we look at an example of an ARM-based device, such as the TI OMAP3530, this is a perfect device with which to build a software defined radio for example. It has a high performance, low powered Cortex A8 Core, with numerous IO devices to help connectivity and display.  Designed as a mobile device, for example, it supports Android -- and the OMAP3530 is also well suited to other areas of A&D such as soldier mounted systems, or remote sensors.

Continue reading >>

VxWorks Cert: Supporting Low Power Devices in Safety Critical Systems

By Bill Graham

Embedded microprocessors are steadily progressing towards more performance while maintaining or decreasing power requirements (more succinctly, the performance per watt is getting better and better). High performance processors that decrease system power requirements are desired in safety critical systems just as they are in the general embedded marketplace. Our recent release of VxWorks Cert Platform adds support for ARM processors to our safety critical VxWorks platform which compliments our current support for Intel Atom processors, both of which are important platforms for high capable but low power consumption devices.  Adding ARM to the supported list of architectures expands the application of the safety critical real-time operating system (RTOS) platform to new possibilities such as mobile, handheld and graphics-oriented devices.

Continue reading >>

Security Needed Everywhere!

By Alex Wilson

It's been a busy couple of months at Wind River with conferences and seminars as we lead up to year end.  One key theme at the various events I have been to is that of the increased need for cyber-security, a theme that is becoming important in all areas of embedded computing.

The subject first came up in Toulouse at the SAE Aerotech conference.  I was there co-hosting a session with Airbus on use of multicore technology in safety certified systems, with a great presentation by our own Joachim Hampp, and also to present a paper on our VxWorks 653 solution as a guest of BARCO.  Apart from some very interesting sessions on IMA, Unmanned Vehicles, and safety certification, the other critical area was an update on cyber-security with presentations from Airbus, Boeing and government.

Continue reading >>

SPS/IPC/Drives, Security and Safety

By Alexander Damisch

The annual SPS/IPC/Drives event was held in Nuremberg last week, this event brings together the global leaders in automation space, including Bachmann, KW Software, ABB, Siemens, Rockwell, Yaskawa and Schneider Electric to name a few! Some key themes emanating at the event included: innovation, energy efficiency, machine-to-machine, security and safety.

Wind River made several exciting announcements at this year’s faire.

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 >>

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 >>

Boeing 787: The long certification journey comes to an end

By Joe Wlad

Today, Boeing delivered its first 787 aircraft to All Nippon Airways (ANA) marking a huge technical, moral and financial achievement. Lorraine Bolsinger, president and CEO, GE Aviation Systems, commented in today’s news release: “This is an opportunity for 787 partners to celebrate their role in bringing the 787 Dreamliner to ANA and the world.” We at Wind River are immensely proud to be part of the supplier team on the Boeing 787 program and our VxWorks 653 operating system environment has enabled Boeing to reduce size, weight and power of the avionics platform thereby reducing aircraft operating costs for its customers.

Certification of the Boeing 787 has been a long road. While some people have focused on the challenges surrounding production and certification delays of the Boeing 787, it’s important to understand how revolutionary this airplane really is. The 787 is the most fuel efficient, technically advanced aircraft ever certified. Given how much new technology is built into the 787, it’s understandable that the certification process took longer than some had hoped. Key attributes of the 787 include a mostly composite aircraft structure (replacing many aluminum parts), elimination of pneumatics to power aircraft systems, a highly efficient wing design and Integrated Modular Avionics which reduce weight and enable reusability of software, among others.

Continue reading >>

Medical Devices, Life Savers

By Nikhil Chauhan

There's no doubt, medical devices are saving the most precious elements of nature - people's lives. The World Health Organization's video below highlights the importance of medical devices to health care.  Medical devices need to be secure and safe. My colleague Santhosh elaborated in a recent blog post on how FDA's 510(k) process is under scrutiny amidst the growing medical device recalls. 

Continue reading >>

A Medical Device Platform: Beyond the Operating System

By Bill Graham

With the release of the new Wind River Platform for Medical Devices it's a good time to point out the breadth of products and services that make up a modern embedded solution suite. In fact, our medical solutions go well beyond the products that make up the Platform. The Platform for Medical Devices provides the main components: VxWorks RTOS, middleware, networking, development tools and BSPs.

Continue reading >>

Embedded Virtualization to Underpin Next Generation Network-Centric Operations

By Chip Downing

“Embedded virtualization” is a technology that is rapidly proliferating in global defense systems that deliver critical data to warfighters.  Embedded virtualization is typically instantiated in small layer of software called a hypervisor that controls all activities and functions on a microprocessor deployed in a military control and communications equipment.

These hypervisors can be foundations for hosting a wide range of complex, dynamic applications for network-centric operations (NCO), electronic warfare (EW) and spectrum planning/electronic warfare battle management (EWBM) systems. Hypervisors enable the migration of existing capabilities from legacy NCO programs onto next generation platforms, enabling wider integration and preserving program investment.  

Continue reading >>

Unmanned Systems No Longer Require Human, or Canine, Participation

By Joe Wlad

Forty-plus years ago, when automatic pilots were first used to perform automatic landings of large aircraft, there was a joke that was circulated among pilots everywhere. Future aircraft would be manned only by a single pilot and a dog. The pilot’s job would be to feed the dog. The dog’s job would be to bite the pilot if she or he touched anything. Today, we’ve advanced well beyond that presageful joke, and airborne systems can now operate autonomously without human, or canine, participation.

One key event taking place this week, that Wind River is exhibiting at, is the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) North America, which showcases the latest trends and technologies in unmanned systems. This event consistently attracts a lot of attention and participation. In fact, this year’s show in Washington, DC is likely to have record participation, which is indicative of the trends we’re seeing in automated and unmanned systems designs.

Ever since hobbyists have demonstrated the ability to control model-sized aircraft using radio signals, engineers conceived of controlling larger-scale unmanned aircraft for both military and civilian purposes. A number of the research efforts for unmanned aircraft over the past two decades have now evolved into larger rate production, and in some cases, deployment in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones. While this is a tribute to the engineers and architects of these designs, one negative consequence of this success is that we now have many unmanned systems that cannot easily coexist with manned aircraft because lack of standards and regulatory requirements for unmanned vehicles. Moreover, the systems in use today are not interoperable. In other words, each unmanned air vehicle is tied to a unique ground station which increases the cost of design and certification.

Continue reading >>

The new front in cyber warfare: embedded systems

At the recent Take Down Conference, a scheduled talk on security vulnerabilities in SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems was cancelled due to direct requests from the Department of Homeland Security and Siemens (CNET - "SCADA hack talk canceled after U.S., Siemens request" . The request was made because the details of the vulnerabilities and the exploits associated with these vulnerabilities were too sensitive at this point in time.  (The researchers have announced that these will be revealed at the upcoming Black Hat conference in August 2011).

This type of request is unusual since the common approach of researchers in the security field is full disclosure so that vulnerabilities are well understood and hopefully, quickly fixed. What this does indicate is the emerging importance of embedded system security in the eyes of the government, the security research community and the technology media in general. The Stuxnet malware initiated this new awareness since its public revelation in 2010.

Embedded systems are the key control and data acquisition point for much our infrastructure - power grid, nuclear power plants, dam control, factory control, robotics, etc. 

Continue Reading >>

 

Wind River Named "Transformational"

By Ido Sarig

Voke, Inc. has just released its annual “Market Mover Array Report on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM)," and we’re very pleased to see that Wind River’s Device Lifecycle Management solutions were favorably reviewed, and ranked as  “Transformational” - the highest category, reserved for vendors that are changing the tone and direction of the market! 

Continue Reading>>

In embedded systems, a lifetime is a long time

By Bill Graham

The recent news about the demise of the Mars Rover Spirit (Mike Deliman blogged about this last week) and comments about how it succeeded its mission many times over, got me thinking about just how long product lifetimes are for embedded products (see "End of Mars mission: Way beyond warranty" by Bob McDonald at the CBC). In many industries using embedded software to control devices, the expected lifespan is decades which contrasts sharply to consumer devices where either software is upgraded constantly or we dispose of the device in a few years. On the other hand, embedded systems often exceed originally planned lifespans many times over. Case in point is the Mars Rover program, where Spirit operated six years beyond its original mission plan and rover Opportunity continues operation, surviving a harrowing journey and landing and a harsh Martian environment for so many years.

Continue Reading>>

IDEF 2011

By Paul Parkinson

Recently, I attended the IDEF 2011 defence trade show in Instanbul as part of the Wind River team exhibiting on the Tektronik (Turkish distributor) stand.

Our partner, Curtiss-Wright, who were also exhibiting at the event, had kindly lent me a VPX chassis and VPX6-185 board, which I used to demonstrate a Cross-Domain Solution (CDS) demo running on VxWorks MILS. The demo filters packets of data between black and red networks based on the security classification of the data, and uses multiple partitions to implement sender and receiver on different interfaces.

The demo currently uses a simple encryption algorithm for data passed over the black network (which wouldn't present much of a challenge to GCHQ/CESG or NSA),  so I decided to replace it with a stronger encryption algorithm which is more appropriate for real world systems. I initially considered using an open source implementation of AES-256, but then I remembered the export controls on 256-bit AES, so I decided to use a public domain implementation of the Russian GOST 28147-89 (which also uses a 256-bit keys).

Continue Reading >>

And Then There Was One

By Mike Deliman

NASA concludes attempts to contact Mars Rover 'Spirit'

Last night the news of Spirit's mission coming to a close hit my mailbox.

For me, her journey started about eleven years ago.  A call from JPL came to my office phone, it was Glenn.  "Mike, we're putting the team back together, we're going back to Mars."

Those words were like music to my ears.  At the time, when completing the Mars Pathfinder project the thought occurred..."this, then, is the pinnacle of my career, the point  where I can mark as the top of my achievements."  This call changed all of that. There were other projects along the way, Gravity-Probe B and others, but Pathfinder had been fantastic!

Over 3 long years we worked as a team, cogs in a bigger machine making something incredible.  We all put in long hours, working all day on our mission, dreaming at night of what we were working on (it's a human thing).  They began to take on personalities of their own, MER-A being feisty as the "older twin", MER-B cooperating and living the charmed life of the youngest child.  Then came the competition where the children gave our babies their names - Spirit and  Opportunity.  These seemed to be very fitting of our offspring, Spirit surely was full of fitfulness, where as Opportunity was always moving forward.

Continue Reading >>

 

The Best Software On Any Planet

By Mike Deliman

In 1995, after finishing up on a particularly challenging project, my boss came to me with a new project.  He asked, “Have you ever heard of Jet Propulsion Laboratory?   Would you like to work with them?”  Without hesitation, I jumped at the offer to sign on.

 I grew up not too far from JPL, and as a child I was a big fan of the space industry, as well as the TV show Star Trek.  I not only knew that JPL was part of NASA, but also that JPL made space probes. 

This was my first real space project.  At the time, I was the most junior member of the team.  Our team was comprised of several engineers at JPL, several at Loral Federal Space Systems, and a handful of folks at Wind River.  The mission was Mars Pathfinder, the first attempt from NASA to use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software and a COTS computer to put a robot on another planet.  I was honored to join the team.

The plan was to build a robot that would land on the surface of Mars, and perform some science experiments.  A remote-control rover was added to the payload.  The robot was to land on Mars and operate in-situ for a month.   Our task was to port the VxWorks operating system to this processor, new to us, for the first time.  The processor was based on the IBM RS6000.

This task was a top-to-bottom port of the operating system to the CPU.  This required an in-depth understanding of how the CPU operated on all levels, and an understanding of the division between the CPU, Board Support, and the OS itself.  It even required understanding how various compiler tools handled the ABI, and later the EABI, for the architecture.  I had never worked on a complete architecture port before this.

This was – to that point in time – the most demanding job I had ever done.  And it was the most fun, as well as the most cooperative team I’d worked with.  I learned an incredible amount, enough to tie-together everything I’d learned about computing in university, and more.

We worked some incredibly long hours, and made our milestones and deliveries.  In December of 1996, we were invited to the product launch proceedings at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  As special guests, we had passes to park near the launch area and sit in grandstands just 5 miles away from the pad. It was an awe-inspiring sight. I felt like a real VIP.

In July 1997, I attended the landing ceremonies for family and friends of Pathfinder at JPL in Pasadena.  When the first image came back from Mars, the entire assembly erupted in fantastic celebration – we had landed on Mars!

Happy anniversary Wind River!

Wind River Turns 30: Looking Back and Moving Forward

By Tomas Evensen 

2011 marks Wind River’s 30th anniversary. The big 3-0…it’s a major landmark moment in anyone’s book. This year, we’ll be taking time to honor this milestone with a retrospective of Wind River’s history and also a series of employee stories.  In my many years with the company, Wind River always impressed on me the concept of  being bigger than just a single product or technology. There is an underlying spirit within our teams that constantly reaches for more, for some greater innovation. While many customers know Wind River for the VxWorks real-time operating system, it was always part of the vision to provide more value. In the early days, this entailed providing a TCP/IP stack and GDB for debugging. Later, additional value came from strong IDE support through Tornado and Workbench. Lately, it has been by providing a choice of operating systems, real-time or open source/Linux. 

A standout example that exemplified the vision of providing a more complete solution was when we embarked on creating a truly embedded hypervisor. In 2004, it had already become clear to us that virtualization would play an important role in embedded designs at some point in the future. In early 2005, Paul Borman who worked for me in the CTO Office created a very impressive prototype, called eCPU, that ran VxWorks and Linux on a single CPU and we learned a lot from that effort. When Johan Fornaeus came on board in 2006 through an acquisition (he was co-founder of Interpeak and before that, one of the co-designers of the Enea/OSE operating system), I had him leading a small nimble task force team to develop a hypervisor really suited for the embedded space. I felt we made a real breakthrough. This was not a repackaged operating system pretending to be something it was not designed for, but instead a truly unique approach to virtualization and separation. Over the next couple years, this small team created a scalable product with an extremely tight footprint, incredible performance, while at the same time being full featured for the common architectures such as Intel, Power, ARM and MIPS.

Back in those days, it was not clear to us when and how important multi-OS systems would be in the future, but today it is hard to imagine how to deal with these new complex systems without a hypervisor for embedded virtualization. Looking at my team’s achievement now, I still marvel at how the Wind River Hypervisor brings together multi-core and our various operating systems. Why choose between operating systems with different characteristics when you can mix them in one system? Throw in a networking stack optimized for multi-core and tools that can debug and find performance bottlenecks and you get a very capable foundation on which our customers can innovate.

By constantly looking to the future, Wind River continues to evolve and further build on its expertise. The ongoing push to innovate may have created interesting and complex challenges along the way. However, it has also resulted in celebrations and breakthroughs, and it’s undoubtedly a big reason why so many of us continue to stay on the ride. 

 

Fun with VxWorks MILS 2.1

By Paul Parkinson

It's been awhile since my previous blog, as I have been rather preoccupied with responding to a number of RFPs. However, I’ve managed to find some time to work on some demos for VxWorks MILS 2.1, which has been fun.

VxWorks MILS 2.1 introduced support for Wind River Linux as a Guest OS (VxWorks Guest OS and High Assurance Environment (HAE) having been supported in the earlier VxWorks MILS 2.0 release). I wanted to get some more hands-on experience of using Wind River Linux as a Guest OS (GOS) running on the VxWorks MILS 2.1 Separation Kernel (SK). So, I started with a version of theBlaster Blastee demo which had been modified by one of my colleagues in Engineering to use a Linux GOS partition for the Blaster. (Blaster Blastee is a well-known Wind River demo which provides a nice flexible framework for blasting TCP or UDP packets between nodes, testing network connectivity and performance).

 I thought it would be an interesting exercise to extend the demo to also use Linux in a second partition as the Blastee (receiver), to demonstrate the scalability and determinism of the MILS SK with multiple Linux virtual boards (VB).

Continue Reading>>

 

Rendezvous with a Rock

By Mike Deliman

MESSENGER spacecraft is approaching it's rendezvous with Mercury.  After flying for over 2400 days, in a little over 24 hours (from writing this)  MESSENGER will maneuver into orbit, the first time a satellite has orbited Mercury.  We hope to learn a lot about the composition of the surface and effects of solar weathering of the surface.  And there's the prospect of photographing the sun-side of the planet for the fist time!

In a few months, Dawn spacecraft will orbit Asteroid Vesta - the first time we've orbited an asteroid.  We hope to learn more about the composition of asteroids.   (We've landed on one, but technically it's harder to orbit than to land.  We've also successfully landed on a comet with Deep Imact...)  Dawn has not been in flight as long as MESSENGER, but it's orbital attempt is none the less impressive (Vesta is much smaller than Mercury).

Continue Reading >>

 

Remarkable

By Mike Deliman

"Space... the final frontier" is how the pre-recorded message from NASA to the crew of Discovery started this morning.

This afternoon while covering the final departure of Discovery from the ISS, the newsman said "Remarkable - a remarkable bit of technology and a lasting mark on history" - or something to that effect. I thought "Remarkable" - that's a word Spock used to describe fantastic new technologies that had never been seen before. Things like Ion Drive in an autonomous space probe, or a life form that lives on something we'd considered impossible.

Some remarkable technologies demonstrated recently in the news include things like Northrop Gruman's X47B UCAS, and the comet flybys of Stardust NExT and DI Epoxi, and ongoing announcements of potentially hundreds of earth-like planets being found by Kepler Space Telescope.

One of the remarkable technologies just delivered to the ISS by Discovery is Robonaut R2.

Continue Reading >>

Scalability: the key to product line success

By Bill Graham

An important requirement for an RTOS such as VxWorks is scalability. What this really means is being usable in many different types of devices, from small memory constrained, low power devices (possibly battery powered, hand held, mobile) to large scale systems, multiple nodes networked together, possibly using multicore in a multi-OS environment. Scaling down is equally important as scaling up. As my colleague Felix Baum had recently posted, flexibility is also critically important part of the equation, an RTOS must be configurable as needed by the developer and run on the hardware platforms they choose, and make the most of the hardware capabilities.

Why not just buy a specific RTOS for each project? This isn't really a viable option anymore. Our customers are looking for a tools and run-time platform they can rely on for a product line rather than an individual product. In the end this turns out the be the best solution both in terms of costs but also in reducing risk  and meeting difficult time-to-market targets. A common platform means reuse of code, expertise, tools and most importantly, "one neck to wring", one vendor and one point of contact to solve your problems.

Continue Reading >>

VxWorks: Pushing the Limits on System Flexibility

By Felix Baum

As you may already be aware, Wind River just released the latest version of our flagship real time OS offering, VxWorks. We worked hard to make sure that our customers can rely on it as a foundation to propel their solutions to market faster and enable them to differentiate their products from the competition by truly capitalizing on the flexibility of the leading edge silicon offerings from our partners.

Often when moving from single to multi-core processors, an SMP based solution seems like a logical next step. In SMP OS configuration, one instance of an operating system with one scheduler controls all of the cores and determines which task gets to run and on which core. 

Continue Reading >>

VxWorks 6.9: A foundation for Innovation

By Bill Graham

We just announced our latest major release of VxWorks 6.9 as the foundation for innovation in embedded software. What do we mean by this? There are two main aspects to this concept. Firstly, developers don't usually get enough time to innovate and work on differentiating features in a product (whiz bang capabilities that make the product stand out). Instead, they are working on platform issues, struggling to get software working on their hardware, debugging low level issues, quality and stability issues. Secondly, innovation and differentiation requires leveraging leading edge technology - leverage other innovation for your innovation. Developers need a software platform that's up to the hardware platform they've chosen. 

Reliable Commercial Solutions

How does VxWorks and Wind River help you innovate? Quite simply its by letting you concentrate on the important parts of the system - the software that implements the features and capabilities that make your product better than your competitors.

Continue Reading >>

 

The Dawn of a Paradigm Shift in Embedded Device Software Security

By Marc Brown

The number of connected embedded and mobile devices is increasing exponentially, predicted to be in excess of 50 billion by 2020.  The lion’s share of this growth is expected to come from traditional market segments where there is an increasing push to transform sensing equipment to more autonomous embedded control, real-time telemetry, and proactive diagnostics. We all know website hacking is nothing new, but just imagine having your public water utility meter, your automobile safety functions, our public transportation traffic sensors, or even the national power grid being hacked by organized criminals or nation states.  This tsunami of connectivity and more intelligent control is creating a huge increase in security vulnerabilities that can impact financial profitability, public services and safety, and national defense. 

Many of today’s most advanced embedded control systems are based on a collection of standalone components – embedded operating systems, virtualization technologies, communication stacks, middleware, and application code.  These standalone products, and the companies that create them, lack the integrated security support required in today’s highly connected world, offering overall solutions that are only as safe as the weakest link. 

McAfee and Wind River have formed a strategic partnership to develop and support comprehensive, purpose-built security solutions specifically designed for these next-gen embedded devices.  

Continue Reading >>

Unsuspecting Benefit of Virtualization

By Chris Ault

I came across an article the other day that was discussing forthcoming innovations in the automation industry. The article discusses how Ethernet is becoming ubiquitous for manufacturing, closing the numerous and incompatible communications protocols and media enabling communication among the various control and controlled systems. The article then goes on to draw industrial automation into the cloud for things such as inventory control and tighter relations between producers and consumers.

One aspect of embedded virtualization that we are focusing on is providing the ability to host general purpose operating systems, such as Linux or Windows, alongside real-time operating systems such as VxWorks on the same embedded device or equipment. In the manufacturing industry, using a hypervisor to run both VxWorks and Windows on the same robotic device allows the device to retain the real-time control while also interacting with standards-based management protocols such as SNMP, CIM or WBEM over Ethernet.

A device like an automotive robot or printing press can keep its real-time OS and application intact while using a general-purpose OS for interacting with other management and control systems via Ethernet. Rather than modify the real-time control application to extend management functions, equipment manufacturers can extend the functionality of these devices by adding general purposes OSes that interact with non-real-time systems. The non-real-time components of the devices can interact with the corporate IT systems to report on health, status, progress, and inventory issues while also communicating with the real-time component of the devices via Ethernet.

Continue Reading >>

 

Embedded Virtualization Opens New Possibilities

By Mark Hermeling

One of the things that stands out in many customer visits that I do is that embedded virtualization often enables possibilities that the customer never thought possible. This of course is a good thing, it may enable them to put a new product to market that the customer had never thought of. In a few cases I have seen customers use virtualization to shift their business models from shipping custom hardware to shipping software only using COTS boards. Virtualization in this case is used to provide the customization that they formerly needed hardware for.

I went on a customer call earlier this year to a customer that was looking to go to multi-core. The customer was building a networking product and was using VxWorks on a single core Intel processor and wanted the additional processing power that a dual or quad-core could provide. They wanted to go to multi-core and came to Wind River to see what their options were. 

Continue Reading >>

Cybersecurity Testing & Trusted Platforms

By Paul Parkinson

In 2009, security concerns were raised about the use of Chinese telecoms equipment in the UK's critical national infrastructure ('Spy chiefs fear Chinese cyber attack', The Times), and the potential for the equipment to be inadvertently or deliberately subverted in a cyber attack.

So, I was interested to read a ZDNet UK news article last week about the Chinese telecoms company Huawei opening a cybersecurity testing centre in the UK to certify its products for use in the UK's critical national infrastructure. The centre will be staffed entirely by security-cleared UK nationals who will work in collaboration with CESG (part of the UK government intelligence agency GCHQ) as part of the certification process to ensure that the evaluations meet the government's highest security standards.

Continue Reading >>