Linux Takes On Automotive Apps

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."

Comments

Errors

[niteice]

Kernel Panic: Your engine a splode!

Re:Errors

[agent dero]

After going to classes all day with far too many foreigh professors that have heavy accents. That was too funny, My sides hurt.

Urm, to keep it on topic, I for one welcome our new linux-powered-automotive-overlords

HA!

[Jozer99]

Your Corola has been rooted!

Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I can totally play Quake while I'm driving.

Re:Awesome

[Richard Dick Head]

Well I don't know about Quake, but running a racer game with The Kernel reading your steering wheel and pedal movements, and outputing scenery to some flat panels pasted on your windows would be WAY cool. Then just so you don't have to take em off, use pwnboard cameras to give you a 360 FOV through the front.

Can you say Penguin Power bumper sticker? :D

Let's hope it's not Gentoo!

[Anonymous Coward]

"Only 17 days left until we can leave hon, I'm just compiling starter.so"

Re:Let's hope it's not Gentoo!

[dcstimm]

well we could just run a stage3 install of starter.so but you wont be able to drive as fast. Sorry

Something new?

[erick99]

I hadn't heard of Automotive Telematics before, nor did I know it was a $14 billion market and, even more surprising (to me), Microsoft has a version of CE that was released in 2002 and updated in 2003 that is specifically for that market. Well, you learn something new everyday within the hallowed halls of SlashDot. That said, I would think that Linux would be an ideal platform for this because it does meet the requirements for telematics as set forth in the article. I wonder how M$ will respond? Or, is it a big enough pie for everyone to have a slice?

Competition

[vijaya_chandra]

Hope linux'd compete well against ms in this field and save us avoiding those microsoft cars' jokes from becoming a reality

Strange article

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

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.

Re:Strange article

[erick99]

The article states:

What automotive telematics is not

Automotive telematics does not include areas of automotive computing that involve powertrain management (such as fuel-injection microcontrollers), or what Metrowerks terms "body/safety/chassis" computing applications. These applications are typically based on proprietary process-based real-time OSes such as QNX, VxWorks, AE, LynxOS and others.

If Operating Systems Drove Your Car to the Store

[weston]

"UNIX

You get in the car and type grep store. You are given a list of 400 7-11's in your area and 50 grocery stores. After picking one and reaching speeds of 200 miles per hour en route, you arrive at the barber shop."

-- If Operating Systems Drove Your Car to the Store

Re:One problem:

[IamGarageGuy 2]

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.

Telematics

[OneNonly]

Was expecting this device / software to be for general control of car systems (engine performance, monitoring etc) but from here:

http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6531324140.html

What is "telematics"?

Telematics is a fairly new word sometimes defined as the combination of telecommunications and computing, or, alternatively, "telemetry" (radio-based instrumentation) and "informatics" (information management using statistics and computers).

Automotive telematics, then, is the application of telematics to the automotive market. Metrowerks lists examples of automotive telematics that include:

* Call center services such as GM OnStar
* In-car navigation and guidance systems
* Car/cellphone integration (for example, for hands-free operation through the radio and a dash-mounted microphone)
* XM radio and Becker Online Pro
* Fleet management systems such as Qualcomm Omnitracs

What automotive telematics is not

Automotive telematics does not include areas of automotive computing that involve powertrain management (such as fuel-injection microcontrollers), or what Metrowerks terms "body/safety/chassis" computing applications. These applications are typically based on proprietary process-based real-time OSes such as QNX, VxWorks, AE, LynxOS and others.

Re:What about TRON?

[belmolis]

One factor may be that TRON is basically a real-time embedded OS, whereas the applications for which automotive Linux is intended are not subject to real-time constraints. I don't know TRON very well, but it is likely easier to write code for a non real-time OS than for TRON. Another factor may have to do with internationalizing textual interfaces. Linux supports Unicode. The last I knew, TRON used only its own competing encoding and did not support Unicode. (I know that TRON fans consider the TRON encoding superior. Even if they are right, Unicode has received much more support outside of Japan so Unicode is probably a better bet for the automotive market.) A non-technical factor may be that TRON is Japanese. There may be a bit of the NIH syndrome at work.

Multiple versions

[Syberghost]

Gentoo: when you receive the car, you have to push the "compile" button and wait two days to drive it.

Every time you change the oil you must do this again.

Contribute yours!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:One problem:

[barzok]

OK, lets learn what is the difference between the two. Two or three valves per cylinder are better (more efficient?) because they allow more air intake as compared to the total cylinder head available space. OHC vs. OHV, how does it work?

On the off chance that this isn't a troll...

More valves = more air. More air coming in means more efficient combustion, generally.

All modern automobile engines I'm aware of (with the exception of Mazda's rotary) are OHV.

"Pushrod" engines have the camshaft in the bottom of the V of a V-type engine, just above the crankshaft, and driven by a chain off the crankshaft. The camshaft pushes on rods, which then push levers (rocker arms) which operate the valves. This wastes a lot of energy, and generally is limited on the RPMs (unless you're building race engines). To get more than 2 valves per cylinder, you'd need a lot more pushrods and lobes on the cams (which there isn't room for), or some extra levers/paddles over the valves to split the force of the pushrod. But that can flex, and flex is bad. And you'll waste more energy regardless.

An Overhead Cam engine has the camshafts directly above the valves, no pushrods. To add a second pair of valves, move the first set to the side, along with their camshaft, and put a second set right next to them. These engines are much easier to run at high RPMs.

Could the latest HEMI design be 4-valved to produce a Ferrari-killing 650HP?

Well, the true HEMI design from the '50s and '60s can do it with 2 valves per cylinder. The new one requires more than '60s knowledge to do it, due to all the computer controls which haven't been cracked yet. The engine hasn't been picked over by the shadetree "hackers" yet. And can it do it and still meet emissions?