Mentor Blogs

With apologies to Shakespeare, let me start off by clarifying that we are referring to Free/Libre Open Source Software; about how it is changing the embedded landscape and more importantly the ideas on efficient ways to benefit from this constant stream of innovation. Very few fields in technology have felt such an impact from open source movement as has embedded software design. The proliferation … Read More

GNU, Linux, Yocto, OSS

From time to time I am pleased to receive submissions from colleagues, who can give different perspectives on embedded software. This week, Carlos O’Donell is talking about software standards and why we should all care about them … My name is Carlos O’Donell and I work for Mentor Embedded as part of the Sourcery CodeBench team, in addition to that I volunteer my time as a GNU C Library … Read More

Linux, CodeBench

Registration is now open at www.mentor.com/events/iesf/detroit for the 12th IESF Conference for Automotive EE Design – June 14th, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dearborn, MI. Click to sign up if you haven’t already. I missed the last one and don’t want to miss this one – especially since this year I am on the program, speaking about automotive electronics reliability (shameless plug: http://books.sae.org/book-t-126) … Read More

LEONI Wiring Systems, Johnson Controls, system analysis, the GENIVI Alliance, Automotive EE Design, Hyatt Regency Hotel, The Hansen Report, automotive electronics reliability, IBM Rational, the Linux Foundation, wire harness engineering, 'FlexRay, CAN, electronic thermal design and measurement, Chrysler, AUTOSAR, Freescale Semiconductor, Bishop & Associates, GENIVI, Delphi Automotive Systems, Continental Automotive, E/E systems design, SAE International, LIN, power and signal design, NXP Semiconductors, Open Kernel Labs, Mentor Graphics, modeling and simulation, Linux, Mecel

I have historically been somewhat skeptical about open source software [OSS]. I am always wary of anything that is “free” and subscribe to the TANSTAAFL ["there ain't no such thing as a free lunch"] principle. It has taken me quite a few years to understand that open software is not free – it is just a different business model from the usual “we make it, you buy it” approach. I … Read More

Linux, Nucleus

Well, tomorrow is the big day. ESC San Jose 2012 [now part of DESIGN West] runs for 3 days and looks set to be an excellent show for anyone interested in embedded systems software or hardware. I recently outlined our plans for the Mentor Embedded booth, but we now have more details … Our booth is set to be a hive of activity, with a continuous program of technical briefings in the theater and … Read More

Nucleus, Embedded Systems Conference, DESIGN West, Linux, Yocto

Next week, the Embedded Systems Conference will take place in San Jose, California. Except that it has a new name: ESC is now part of DESIGN West, which is an aggregate of a number of conferences. Personally, I do not care for the new name, as the word “design” has a very broad meaning way beyond electronic systems. But I guess I will get used to it. The event will be interesting from many … Read More

Embedded Systems Conference, DESIGN West, Linux

Somebody asked me: “What is the plural of Linux?” Maybe it is Linuxes. That sounds a bit messy, which seems rather appropriate really… If we think about the desktop world and buying application software, you might have a Windows PC or a Mac or perhaps you run Linux. It is typical for the spec for an application to discuss hardware and OS compatibility. There will normally be ridiculously … Read More

Linux, Nucleus, RTOS

The increasing complexity of cars has taught automakers the value of cooperating with competitors on technology that customers won’t see and don’t care about but would be prohibitively expensive for a single automaker to develop in-house. Automakers and suppliers formed the GENIVI Alliance, for example, to create an open source (Linux-based) development platform for in-vehicle infotainment, facilitating … Read More

Jaguar Land Rover, intel, Genivi Alliance, Visteon, Microltron, MontaVista Software, QNX, Linux, Android, PSA Peugeot Citroën, in-vehicle infotainment, Magneti Marelli, Mentor Graphics, XS Embedded, Renault, Delphi, Microsoft, ARM

I was, of course, saddened to hear the recent news of the death of Steve Jobs. Since then, the Internet has been buzzing with stories, anecdotes and speculation about him. As a result, the news of the death of another key figure in the computing world barely got a mention: Dennis Ritchie died on 12 October 2011. Although not so much of a household name as Jobs, there are many [including myself] who … Read More

Dennis Ritchie, Steve Jobs, Linux

For a software developer, the idea of a library is quite simple: It is a file containing a [typically large] number of functions/procedures/subroutines in a special format. At link time, the linker looks in the library [or there may well be more than one, in which case it checks each in turn] to resolve any references to functions not satisfied by the supplied object modules. This means that the programmer … Read More

Development Tools, libraries, Linux

Just a quick “heads up”. If you are interested in the selection of an operating system for embedded applications [a topic I discussed briefly here] you might like to attend a Web seminar that I am presenting later this week. The session will be less than one hour, including live Q&A. The live session will be on Thursday at 9:00 Pacific and an archive recording will be available after … Read More

Linux, multi-core, RTOS, Multi-OS, Nucleus

All my working life, I have had a challenge with explaining to people what I actually do. It all starts with defining what is an embedded system. As I have discussed before, this is by no means easy. I thought that this might become simpler over time, as embedded systems become even more ubiquitous, but the reverse is true. The definition is getting even fuzzier. It has reached a point where software … Read More

RTOS, Linux

I recently talked about the process that might be applied to the selection of an embedded operating system and I hope that these guidelines are useful. I am currently working on a Web seminar on this topic, so I would welcome any input. However, developers tend to stick with a particular OS [or, at least, with a particular OS vendor] – recent research suggested that only about 20% of developers … Read More

Linux, API, RTOS, Nucleus

I was recently approached for help by a Mentor Graphics customer, who was planning a new project and needed to select an operating system. They wanted guidance with that choice. Of course, one is tempted to say that it does not matter which of our products they chose [as, between them, Nucleus RTOS and Mentor Embedded Linux do cover most possibilities], but I felt they needed something more objective. There … Read More

Windows CE, Source Code, Linux, Low Power, RTOS, Networking, Nucleus

Mentor recently shared OpenMCAPI, our MCAPI implementation, with the world under an open source license (BSD). We’re proud of it because it was especially designed for portability, and while it’s sophisticated enough to offer advanced features like asynchronous communication, it’s simple enough that it can be easily understood and deployed on low-resource embedded systems. So what … Read More

Multi-OS, MCAPI, Multicore, AMP, Linux