Today, DSO software supplier (and DSO.com sponsor) Wind River announced both a consumer-products platform for its commercial grade Linux and a security-based partnership with chipmaker ARM.
The new platform, called Wind River Platform for Consumer Devices – Linux Edition, is designed as a small-footprint, fast-booting platform for consumer devices that include mobile phones, video recorders, and set-top boxes. The platform is based on Linux Kernal 2.6, includes an Eclipse-based IDE, and supports a wide range of both hardware (including ARM, Xscale, and MIPS) and software (including Java). (You can get the official version on Wind River's site here.)
Meanwhile, Wind River's partnership with ARM mainly means thatWind River has enhanced its Linux platforms with ARM's TrustZone technology, which secures consumer products running on Symbian OS, Linux, WinCE, and other operating systems. ARM's involvement is limited to providing technology, documentation and other support to Wind. (More official details on Wind River's site here.)
Wind River is having some nice success with its commercial-grade Linux, by the way. According to Venture Development Corp., commercial Linux now makes up 26 percent of the commercial device software market, up from 13 percent last year. Not only is this a bigger chunk, but it's also a bigger chunk of a market that has grown by 16 percent year-to-year. Wind River's share of the market for commercial Linux for devices has grown from less than 5 percent last year to just under 40 percent today, VDC says.
Speaking of VDC, they're impressed by the Green Hills/I-Logix partnership announced earlier this week (see DSO.com's article on the announcement). The deal, VDC says in its latest bulletin, "has the potential to reshape competition within many key embedded vertical markets," assuming the two partners execute well and their products work as advertised. While other vendors have tried to bridge the UML/IDE gap, VDC believes the Green Hills/I-Logix partnership has several advantages over them. For one, it's a partnership, not a merger. For another, the two companies are among the top three suppliers in their respective markets, with strong reputations. Look out, Aonix, Mentor Graphics, and IAR?
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