Device Hackers Do It With Linux

An anonymous reader writes "LinuxDevices.com has published the results of its annual Embedded Linux Market Survey probing developer preferences and industry trends. Over the last four years, the survey has become an important resource for industry analysts and decision makers. Among the revelations: the embedded Linux tools and OS provider market is wide open, with no single dominant vendor; developers care most about Cost/Freeness; ARM is overtaking x86 in embedded systems; developers prefer support fees to runtime license models; and, Linux dwarves all other embedded operating systems, projected for use in half of all embedded projects during the next two years."

Comments

Right now

[Apreche]

Right now I have a job and I'm using linux on an ARM XScale processor.

Glad to hear it. Keep evangelizing.

[Syncdata]

Linux is an easy call when it comes to putting together a piece of hardware.
I'm currently trudging through the planning phase for an MP3 stereo component. Linux gives me, an aspiring hardware haxxor 3 key benefits.
It's not as tethered to X86.
A linux system can be (practically) as small as you want it to be.
And at least for my purposes, building a prototype, it's free to use and experiment with. I don't need to drop the cash on a liscence to a closed OS. (I'm looking at you CE).
Linux isn't ready for some things, but it's a perfect fit for an home-dev.

Middle-Earth Development?

[EvilJohn]

"Linux dwarves all other embedded operating systems..."

So we've gone from trolls to dwarves?

you don't say

[xenocide2]

Linux is looking up? Consider the sample source for a minute. A survey on linuxdevices. Of course there will be a solid linux representation. I'd expect to hear great things about the market trends of QNX based on a survey from QNXZone, too.

Re:you don't say

[El]

True, this is not a scientific survey. However, my personal experience tells me Linux is being considered for about half of all new devices. Look at the economics. A wireless access point is now about a $50 device. How much sense does it make to pay a $25 license fee for the OS for every one of these? You simply can't do that and still remain competitive. Arguably, you can't pay ANY per-unit license fees now and still remain competive with companies that are paying only development costs -- at least for any devices selling in high volumes.

Plural dwarf noun != verb "to dwarf"

[cinder_bdt]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dwarf

PC components

[hankaholic]

Linux may kick some ass in the embedded market, but PC hardware makers are still disappointingly reluctant to release information needed to ensure that their hardware works to its fullest extent under everyone's favorite OSS kernel.

Matrox used to release specifications so that those willing to roll their own drivers could take advantage of their hardware. This is sadly no longer true.

It's awesome to see that Linux holds its own in the embedded market. Embedded manufacturers realize that their hardware is a means to an end, and by allowing developers the freedom to make their own decisions regarding OS they only widen their potential customer base. I only wish that PC hardware manufacturers felt the same way.

Re:PC components

[hankaholic]

Opening specifications isn't about support costs, it's about fear. Deciding to stop distributing the same exact documentation which they used to provide quite happily wasn't a move to cut support costs.

Manufacturers are afraid that when their "trade secrets" get out, competing suppliers will destroy them. However, there have been manufacturers marketing MIPS cores for years, yet many still opt for the original in their designs. Intel seems to be doing fairly well despite having documented their instruction sets for decades.

It's about shipping a product which is well-manufactured enough that competition isn't so worrisome. Matrox uses quality RAMDACs, so their cards have beautiful output. Even if someone were to sell a cheap knock-off clone, Matrox still owns the trademarks, and nobody can steal their reputation for producing cards with quality output.

It's about fear of competition, and refusing to disclose anything beyond the bare minimum is nothing but an attempt to stifle it.

Device Hackers Do It With Linux

[Captain Splendid]

Haven't I seen that on a bumper sticker somewhere?

What does embedded mean these days?

[ClosedSource]

An embedded system used to mean a system in which software didn't run from RAM, was severly resource limited, and in many cases, had to run with predicatable timing. It was also limited to solving a specific problem. In those systems, porting a conventional OS like Unix or Windows was totally out of the question.

The current definition seems to be a general purpose computing device that is no larger than a PC. Given this new definition, it's no surprise that Linux is dominant since it is free (as in beer) and backward compatibilty with Windows is not an issue.

Still in those projects where embedded really means something, I don't think Linux, Windows CE or any other standard OS can cut it.

Re:What does embedded mean these days?

[jilles]

The embedded world is also subject to moore's law. While 8 and 16 bit processors are still very dominant, 32 bit processors are rapidly being adopted. Combined with enough memory, linux is a very good choice for such systems. Since in many embedded devices, building the software is the critical path on the project, many embedded hardware vendors opt for 32 bit + linux rather than 16 bit and lots of development and licensing cost.

That's why basically all consumer electronics, mobile phones, etc. come with 32 bit processors and lots of memory. Mass produced electronics that go into kitchen appliances, cars, warches etc have a much smaller margins and for those things it is not (yet) economically feasible.

I read a paper from philips once describing the amount of memory in their television sets over the years. This was a paper from 96 I think and they were talking about 512kb. The observation they made was that this amount appeared to grow exponentially (up 64kb in the early nineties) growing to a predicted 4MB shortly after y2k. Assuming their prediction was accurate we are talking about embedded systems with between 4 an 32 MB for operating television sets right now. This is more than enough for running linux (although I'm not sure that Philips uses it).