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Wind River Completes Embedded Linux Metamorphosis
An anonymous reader writes "Embedded software powerhouse Wind River's metamorphosis into an embedded Linux vendor appears to be complete. The company will announce today that it is shipping a pre-release version of its first embedded Linux distribution, and that it has already delivered 1,000 "developer seats" for the Carrier Grade Linux 2.0 compliant software."
too little
too late
I wouldn't say their "metamorphosis", if they ever purported to want or aim to do such a thing, is complete - I mean they are still selling VxWorks right? I believe the top four platforms on their Product Directory are based on VxWorks, not Linux. I think they can fairly be described as an embedded software vendor that supplies Linux platforms, rather than an "embedded Linux vendor".
-- Nothing unusual happened today
I think Wind River is making a smart move. They could have easily dug their heels in and raged against the Linux tide. Instead they're going with the flow and building to take advantage of new opportunities and serving their customers' needs. Good show!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
NASA uses VXWorks, it is one of thir best customers. They are very conservative, wont switch to linux.
Considering that it is the same company that did the Mars Rover software, this is a big thing.
For a company with such a high profile product to adopt Linux is only a good thing.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
The Market thinks they are turning it around.
Less geeky Stock Talk chat here.
In the next few months, if we win the contract, I'll be responsible for tweaking an embedded telcom system. While I have no problems with that, I'd like to make sure that I use the right tools for the job.
...)
At what point would Wind River's tools become helpful beyond the normal tweaking and tuning? (Ex: changing buffer or table sizes, removing parts of the kernel that aren't necessary,
I realize that much of this would be project-specifc, though any general tips would be helpful.
...but is Linux really the platform for hard real-time embedded control? I like Linux as much as the next /.er, but it's not the ultimate solution for everything. VxWorks does something very different to most Linux boxes. Let's keep some variety in the world, so we can choose the tool for the job.
There are SO many CE developers out there. We've seen many guides to migrating to Linux on the desktop or the server. Has anyone seen a migration guide for embedded? Is there a way to make it easy for CE developers to use Linux?
One of the things that bug me is that, even if you are producing stand alone code that totally doesn't use CE resources, the IDE still runs only on Windows. Maybe this development will make a few other companies wake up and smell the coffee.
Used by Hauppage for all you media mvp users. The Wind River side of things is reliable, the windows service side of things is not so good.
Nothing costs nothing
Embedded operating systems (OSes) appear in many military systems: e.g. nuclear missiles. We should ensure that such technology does not "accidentally" leak to China. The Chinese would certainly use the technology of our very best embedded OSes to improve their military systems.
if you need Real time capabilities, then BUY an embedded linux distro.
otherwise they offer nothing and generall LESS than a copy of building embedded linux systems from o-riliey.
Wind River's web site makes a maximized Firefox browser window shift a little to the left and down with every link click.
Didn't Spirit and Opportunity run a Wind River RTOS? So now that a NASA supplier offers Linux, is there some possibility that the next generation of Mars rovers will run Linux?
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
http://www.fsmlabs.com/m /
s te ms/Realtime/Linux/
http://www.lynuxworks.co
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Sy
More on Carrier Grade Linux Spec.
otherwise they offer nothing and generall LESS than a copy of building embedded linux systems from o-riliey.
Thanks! At this point, I don't know the details on the project, only that it's telecom related and they need someone to tune the kernel. I can do that, though I don't know what hardware and response times they are looking for or what load the app will add to the system.
NASA uses very old, stable versions. Partly because the design-to-landing cycle can take a decade or so.
The replacement of magnetic tapes drives with flash memory exposed a flaw in a newer part of the operating system that sidelined the rovers for two weeks in early 2004. Fortunately they were able to upload a patch.
An anonymous reader writes "Embedded software powerhouse Wind River..."
$20 says the "anonymous reader" is a Wind River employee or shareholder.
Of course, I'm sure that someone will suggest that this anonymous posting is from a Wind River competitor...
Timesys is another LINUX RTOS vendor, here in Pittsburgh. Definately a neat shop to work, I had a real short contract there a while back.
Although, the fucking HR cunt put me through a 4 month interviewing process for a 3 month contract. What an asshole!
I normally wouldn't feed bullshit into a forum, but thinking about this, but that shit makes me mad, it's extremely rude, and shows what an asshole that person is.
They've had several low-end positions since then, and my applications go unanswered. Meanwhile, they hire construction contractors to fix their network problems...
Sorry. My 15m of hate for today.
About 3 years ago, Wind River bought BSDI, a commercial supplier for an x86 BSD based OS. With the appearant focus on Linux by Wind River, why did WR buy out BSDI and the BSD/OS?
1) Go Open Source
2) ???
3) Go out of business
4) Profit! (??)
Couple points here that I think need to be made:
1. Historically, Wind River's success in the embedded market was based on the strength of its tool chain rather than the strength of its embedded OS. I suspect that the company's decision to broad the number of OS's that it is supporting is a reflection that the management team has figured this out.
2. As networking becoming more and more important, the requirement for a hard real-time operating systems decreases. You can't get deterministic performance out of a TCP/IP, which means that you can't get it out of a networked application. As a result, a number of designs are going in a different direction, combining a hard real-time hardware component coupled with an embedded Linux control/management plane...
Wind River? I thought they were named Win Driver.
People rag on M$FT architectures to no end, but WinCE does surprisingly well in real world tests, and Linux does surprisingly poorly:
...suing the shit out of Green Hills Software http://www.ghs.com/news/20050118_WRS.html in express violation of a business contract to make this new product even remotely viable in the marketplace. Kudos to you...mini-SCO!
"Vee do not vear the hello-my-name-ist badge!!" - The Real Mad Scientist
Your are right. Microsoft rules you (you clicked I accept on the ELUA)... not me.
Does anyone know how Wind River Systems is going to make their source code available?
Does this mean that we will soon have Linux systems running on other planets and moons? Didn't Wind River supply the OS for the Mars rovers? It would be cool if we could say that "Linux powers 34% of servers on Earth, and most computers elsewhere."
Some vendors use FUD, others use good ol' guilt...
Duh...
They say the mind is the first thing to
Vxworks do provide a lot of good tools. There windview tool is a must if you want to find performance bottle necks.
People forget embedded development is a lot harder than normal PC based stuff, because it can be difficult to get into the device when its running.
I went to a presentation by wind river on there new tools and despite my sceptsism I was quite impressed.
Choose your allies carefully, it is highly unlikely you will be held accountable for the actions of your enemies
It is not really metamorphesis. They have not stopped VxWorks. They just offer Embedded Linux too.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I am learning C and wanting to seriously get into embedded systems (I searched Oreilly but its sparse), can someone knowledgeable point me into a series of books, and websites, give me some great advise to begin down the path of apprenticeship and onto expertise? Much obliged if you would; and if you would moderate this post up just till it starts getting replies.
The place where WindRiver tools really shine is bringing up an OS on a custom board from scratch. The JTAG ICE based debuggers that WR sells are good for debugging ISRs, bootloaders, etc. I have written device drivers without source-level ICE debugging :{ a good ICE debugger can save you months and months and months of efforts when it comes to doing that type of low-level development.
The task level debuggers are better for application development, profiling, etc.
The Tornado front end to gdb was better than the open-source alternatives several years ago, I am not sure if that is still true or not.
Hope that helps some, like you said it's very project specific.
Linux isn't suitable for hard-real time control. I could see Linux eventually having a place in robotic systems above the level of actually controlling motors and actuators, but you are still going to need a RTOS running on a dedicated processor to actually control the robot's movements.
Check out RTAI. Yes, you have to patch it, but those guys are doing an incredible job to make your linux kernel real-time.
The Real-Time Application Interface is a hard real-time extension to the Linux kernel, contributed in accordance with the Free Software guidelines. It provides the features of an industrial-grade RTOS, seamlessly accessible from the powerful and sophisticated GNU/Linux environment.
Greets,
Stefano
Today one can not find BSDi among WindRiver's products (it used to be there just recently, according to Google, though), and customers in need of support for their earlier bought licenses are requested to contact BSDMall instead.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.