Wind River Blog Network

Can Automotive learn from Avionics Safety?

By Paul Parkinson

In my previous post on software safety standards, in response to some questions raised by Alex Wilson, I commented on what I believe are signs of convergence between avionics software standards. However, I didn't address Alex's question on whether there is any potential for convergence between avionics and automotive software standards.

Electronic systems have been present in automotive systems for many years now, but they have only really become visible to the driver and passengers with the advent of infotainment systems and driver-assist systems, such as Anti-Lock Braking System and airbag Supplementary Restraint Systems (wikipedia).

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Safety Standards Convergence?

By Paul Parkinson

In a recent post on software certification, Alex Wilson asked why there are so many software safety certification standards? The current situation is of course due to historical reasons, and this has resulted in some interesting anomalies. However, I think there is some reason for cautious optimism, as there appears to be more increasingly widespread acceptance of standards in recent years, and there is also a degree of convergence between standards, at least in some cases.

The RTCA DO-178B standard was originally developed for the safety critical software on civil aircraft certified by the US FAA, but in recent years this has been increasingly adopted by US military aircraft programmes, and subsequently on civil programmes in other countries around the world. (In Europe, civil aircraft are actually developed according to the EUROCAE ED-12B standard, but this is identical to DO-178B).

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DSDP: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

By Doug Gaff

Following up on today’s announcement of milestones in three of the DSDP projects—eRCP 1.0, MTJ 0.7, and TM 1.0—I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on DSDP…how it started, where it is today, and where it’s heading. First, let me start with a timeline of project events.

March 2005. Unofficially, the DSDP project got its start at a BoF session during EclispeCon last year. At the BoF, several device software tools vendors assembled to discuss the need for more embedded-specific functionality in Eclipse, specifically in the debugging area. There was acknowledgment of CDT and its extensive contribution to tooling in the embedded space, but there was also a desire to see more enhancements in the Eclipse Platform and more of a breadth of functionality around device software development. Shortly after EclipseCon, Wind River proposed the DSDP project and its two initial sub-projects, Target Management and Device Debugging. The TM project set out to build a framework and UI for managing remote embedded devices. The DD project initially focused on working with the Eclipse Platform Debug team to create a more customizable debugging framework in the Platform.

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Microsoft versus Linux in Automotive Industry

By John Bruggeman

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on my last blog “Linux and Automotive: Reaching a Tipping Point.” I’m really interested in this topic and all of the response I got inspired me to dive in a little deeper.

Over the past several months, I’ve talked to a lot of people in the automotive industry. I asked them one simple question:  Which OS will dominate automotive infotainment?

Here’s what I learned:

First, everyone seems to think the game will boil down to two big contenders: Linux and Windows. But because of some very basic business, technology, and user-experience factors, Linux will become the platform of choice.

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Linux and Automotive: Reaching a Tipping Point

By John Bruggeman

Linux has always been suspect when it comes to automotive applications.

The general belief was that safety-critical automotive applications required a deterministic, real-time operating system.  Linux just didn’t cut it for telematics or under-the-hood applications.  OEMs relied on proprietary OS companies for their solutions.

Now some of that belief is grounded in fact. Consequently, Linux adoption in automotive has moved at a snail’s pace.

But I believe moving forward, Linux adoption in the automotive industry will happen quickly, dramatically, and in ways we never expected.

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What shall I do with my iPod in the car?

By Peter Kleiner

Recently I was at a congress in Germany about advances in electronics of the car (the congress was in German and there is no English web page yet - see http://www.elektronik-tagung.de/mic/elekTagung2006/deutsch/ ). There was a really interesting session about consumer devices and their emerging into the car.

A standard mobile device that can be found in cars today is the mobile phone. Integration of this device into the navigation or infotainment system in the car is state of the art. There are standards around like Bluetooth which define the communication and data exchange between the mobile phone and the in-car device. By that, the in-car device can access the address book of the phone and can initiate or accept phone calls. Typically, the display of the mobile phone is not used in this scenario.

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