Wind River Device Software Optimization: Run

Providing the Right Real-Time Solution for Your Specific Application Needs

Open source. And open standards. By working with a vendor that embraces both, you benefit from having a greater choice and broader flexibility when it comes to selecting the right run-time platform for your device solutions. And that should be important to you, considering that within the next few years, device software will be running on every imaginable product in every vertical market. It will even be required to serve multiple application purposes. To develop these intelligent, connected devices, you face the challenges of rising complexity, rapidly evolving standards, tighter quality control, and shorter market windows.

To successfully run device software, you need to consider the following:

Your device application needs: Are your device software developers building differentiated devices that require a small footprint, high-performance, and real-time deterministic behavior? Are you looking for a proven, industry-standard RTOS, one that is standards-based (allowing you to reuse intellectual property), and more? Or are you looking to leverage the intellectual property of the open source community, and looking for a rich application library and broad availability of board support packages (BSPs)? Are you looking for a commercial-grade solution to leverage the advantages of open source technologies?
The partner ecosystem: Will you be able to tap into a large hardware and software partner ecosystem, maximizing your investments?
Experience of your device partner: Does your partner have proven experience, reliability, and stability?
Ability to offer comprehensive global support: Will your global development teams have access to around-the-clock support?

Our DSO solutions are built around two leading operating systems used for device software development: the VxWorks RTOS and open source–based Linux.

VxWorks Linux

VxWorks: The Standard in Secure, Real-Time Computing

Wind River's VxWorks run-time platforms are optimized for use in a range of vertical markets, enabling you to develop innovative devices whose competitive advantage lies in differentiated intellectual property. In addition to the scalable, high-performance VxWorks RTOS, the platforms include integrated run-time technologies and the powerful, open, Eclipse-based Wind River Workbench development suite. Our platforms are backed by a world-class hardware and software partner ecosystem, 24/7 global technical support, customer education, and specialized professional services to help jump-start your next project.

Unlike other device software solutions, Wind River's VxWorks platforms offer the following:

They are based on the proven, industry-standard RTOS, VxWorks (the world's most widely deployed RTOS in 350 million devices worldwide).
They provide a trusted, end-to-end solution for device development with a small, scalable footprint, high performance, high determinism, and low latency (enabling development of hard-real-time performance).
They offer a standards-based solution that lowers costs by enabling the reuse of existing VxWorks-based intellectual property and lowers the developer learning curve.
They do not expose proprietary, differentiated software investments to the General Public License (GPL).
They are supported by the device software industry's largest partner ecosystem of hardware and software partners with the most knowledgeable developer base.

The following are the available VxWorks platforms:

Broadening Our Linux Offering: Soft and Hard Real-Time Linux Technology

Royalty-free, open source Linux operating systems and related applications are bringing cost-savings and vendor independence to enterprise computing. However, Linux has its challenges. Device manufacturers moving to Linux must address the following issues: the right distribution for your device; the right tools; integration with the operating system and toolchain you opt to use; and testing, verifying, and validating for quality assurance, which often means testing the system as a whole. In addition to supporting your own deployed device among your customers, you must support it in the open source community, fixing bugs, reporting changes, and more. And you must stay current-no small task given the new features and functionalities available every day in the Linux community.

We made a commitment to the Linux business, because our many customers asked us to be in the market. They asked us to provide the same added value for Linux that we provide with our VxWorks platforms. In addition to our proven, commercial-grade technology, we now offer Wind River Real-Time Core for Linux, the software industry's only commercially available, patented, hard real-time Linux technology.

Soft Real-Time Linux Solution

Wind River General Purpose Platform, Linux Edition is the premier commercial-grade development and deployment solution for a wide range of devices. In addition to a fully tested and validated distribution based on the latest Linux 2.6 kernel, General Purpose Platform includes integrated open source networking, security, and real-time technologies, along with the open, Eclipse-based Wind River Workbench development suite. With it, you can take advantage of the following benefits:

Preintegrated, tested, and validated Linux distribution reduces time-to-revenue.
The pristine-source code transparency and build system offer maximum flexibility to customize distribution for specific devices.
The complete end-to-end development suite enables developer efficiency and standardization.
The burden of having to support and maintain your own Linux distribution is eliminated.
Valuable engineering resources are freed up to focus on competitive differentiation.
Access to a global team of Linux experts through Wind River Professional Services extends developer capabilities.
Overall development costs on nonapplication-specific components are reduced.
Integration with Eclipse expands the development ecosystem and simplifies tools integration.
A standardized toolset automates the development life cycle, reducing errors and improving remote development.
Going to market with a proven and trusted partner increases confidence.

Hard Real-Time Linux

We recognize that hard real-time functionality helps extend the viability of Linux to a broader set of device development projects, particularly those that require mission-critical performance. Wind River Real-Time Core for Linux enables a hard real-time application while running standard Linux as a separate process. Real-time Linux technology enables hard real-time response times for applications ranging from single-core feature phones, high-bandwidth network communications, robotics, and industrial control.

Having acquired the intellectual property related to hard real-time technology from Finite State Machine Labs, Wind River is able to offer customers one of the best and most mature hard real-time Linux solutions available. Our real-time Linux technology includes a hard real-time executive that coexists with the standard Linux kernel. Together they combine the hard real-time capabilities necessary for high-performance responsiveness with the general-purpose capabilities of the Linux operating system for file system management, networking, and other operating system functions.

The combination of real-time Linux technology and Wind River's market-leading Linux device software platforms provide device manufacturers with mature, proven technology for developing complex, next-generation, Linux-based applications that require hard real-time functionality.

Learn more:

Wind River Linux and VxWorks Real-Time Capabilities: A Comparison