Delivering an Optimized Linux Platform Tailored to In-Vehicle Application Requirements
Networking and consumer technologies are converging in automotive applications in a big way: rear-seat entertainment systems; multimedia in the dashboard; advanced turn-by-turn navigation; consumer electronics connectivity, from MP3 players to the Internet; and drive-by-wire technology that accommodates increasing requirements for safety and security functionality. Industry analysts predict that by 2010, software and electronics will account for 40 percent of a vehicle's content, and some vehicles may contain 100 million lines of code.
For infotainment and telematics devices, automotive manufacturers face a difficult challenge: While a vehicle's life cycle may last a decade or more, consumer devices stay current for only a matter of months. This means automakers must design in the flexibility to integrate both current and future consumer devices. They also face complex product development processes and massive configuration management challenges. They must address the high cost of integration, as well as increasing costs and time-to-market pressures, quality/reliability concerns, and customer loyalty issues.
New infotainment and telematics applications will require collaboration with many vendors, alongside the interoperability of many technologies. In addition, as these devices move from closed proprietary platforms to connected platforms for application deployment, they will require an open and flexible architecture, as well as expertise from the consumer electronics, automotive, and networking industries. This new connectivity will create even more complexity. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers will need to manage a vast array of applications, middleware, and human machine interface (HMI) options.
Increasingly OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers are turning to Linux as the preferred technology for new platform designs. The ready availability of multimedia and connectivity options coupled with a rapid development window offer new opportunities for innovation and differentiation. However, baseline open source solutions are insufficient. Linux-based technology must be hardened for automotive use: power state management, "instant on"/fast boot, robust file system, and hardened system infrastructure are just a few of the in-vehicle requirements that go beyond a typical kernel.org distribution.
Why Wind River
Wind River is leading the development of an automotive-optimized Linux solution. By leading the definition of an automotive industry specification and contributing the first iteration of code, a Linux platform tailored to the needs of the automotive market jump-starts your next development project and keeps your platform on the path for broader industry alignment. This protects your investment and increases the compatible applications, middleware, and tools that you may choose to apply to further differentiate your platform.
As a leader in the open source market, Wind River understands that a true standard belongs to the community, not just one company. That's why Wind River is also opening both the specification and code to the automotive industry for everyone's ongoing contribution, development, and benefit. At the same time, Wind River continues to lead the further enhancement of both standard and source. More information on the open source standard may be found at Moblin.org.
Wind River offers a commercial version of our automotive-optimized Linux solution for in-vehicle devices, Wind River Linux Platform for Infotainment. Wind River Linux Platform for Infotainment goes beyond just the Linux distribution to include automotive enhanced middleware and available value-added hardware debugging and development tools, world-wide support, professional services, and open source business solutions, including indemnification and flexible business models.
Automotive-based solutions: Wind River provides the only open source–based solution that offers you an optimized Linux platform, commercial support, professional services, and integrated development tools for the complete infotainment and telematics device development life cycle.
Standards: Wind River is driving the definition of the automotive Linux standard and helping build industry consensus and acceptance of that standard. More broadly, from AUTOSAR to the Connected Vehicle Trade Association (CVTA), we are committed to open industry standards.
Partners: Our extensive ecosystem of leading automotive applications providers enables our customers to focus on value-add features and faster time-to-market.
