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Linux Takes On Automotive Apps

Posted by timothy on from the things-that-work dept.

loconet writes "Linux Devices has released an article about Metrowerks setting out to drive Linux further into the automotive telematics market by launching what it calls "Automotive Grade Linux," a version of Linux enhanced with non-traditional features to address the specific requirements of automotive telematics."

6 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. One problem: by comwiz56 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How many car manufacturers are going to be putting some untested software into cars. Not only from a safety/reliability standpoint, but they also probably want to keep the locks closed on access to the software, and open source wouldn't work with this model.

    1. Re:One problem: by IamGarageGuy+2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Let's not be too alarmist here. This is the automotive market here, bad press for them is the deathnell of a product. If anybody is going to test, retest and test again it will be them. I am not a fanboy but I know that this is a market segment that relies heavily on reliable products and will spend untold millions if not billions just on testing alone.

      --
      Stay tuned for new sig...
    2. Re:One problem: by i.r.id10t · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Porsche hasn't had a HP or top speed advantage for a long time. Heck, I know a few people who run SSCA events in 356s (75-90hp max from factory) and actually turn in better times than many much newer cars from many different manufacturers. Its all about the handling.

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      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
  2. Strange article by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    More than half of words were buzzwords or acronyms.

    Anyway, why exactly do you need a PowerPC 603e and two USB ports for..uh..diagnosing cars? Seems to me that the hardware is a bit overkill, and an embedded direct solution might function a little better by avoiding the overhead of simply running Linux. Don't get me wrong; Linux is great for full-powered machines, but this doesn't need to be full powered.

    1. Re:Strange article by wskellenger · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This area happens to be within the scope of my research, and I think it would be next to impossible to go overboard with the hardware.

      If your research is somehow connected to the auto industry, it sounds like you need to visit Detroit.

      I can think of several applications where having a "full-powered" computer in a car would be useful, not least of which is if you are on an automotive network (which doesn't really exist yet) and the environment requires high-grade encryption or other measures to provide the appropriate security. If the automotive network is P2P, lots of resources might be needed to make it work well.

      Almost every vehicle produced today uses some sort of network to allow all of the modules to communicate together. The most common is CAN. Please list three more applications where this type of computing power would be useful.

      Overkill? If anything, the PPC 603e is way undershooting what I think could/should be appropriate for automotive computing. Why not a 3GHz Pentium?

      What types of computing tasks do you think are necessary inside an automobile, and what types of processors do you think are employed today? The ABS controller that I work on utilizes a 33MHz Motorola (proprietary) micro. The code that runs it is highly optimized, and every byte of RAM is scrutinized.

      ...but why not provide more than what's needed...

      A ten-cent change will be discussed for literally hours on high volume platforms, because that $0.10 * 250,000 cars/year = $25,000. You're talking about hardware that will cost significantly more than what's employed today. And the benefit? None.

  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion