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by jason mcdonald, senior editor | read other
blog posts |
Mentor Graphics made a big announcement at the DAC show: the acquisition of Embedded Alley (a Linux service provider), an embrace of the Google-supported Android platform for mobile phones and other devices, and a 'Linux strategy' for embedded systems.
The forward-looking announcement no doubt will focus embedded attention on Android, so let's take a quick look.
contents of this post:
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what is android?
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android for embedded systems - what? how?
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android and mentor: strategy
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feedback - read it
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feedback - give it
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what is android?
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Android, of course, is an 'open platform' supported by Google and the Open Handset Alliance.
Google's not so secret goal has been to open up the phone market, freeing it from the vice-grip of the carriers (at least in the USA) and creating the possibility of a successful Android 'App Store,' similar to Apple's own App Store.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and so far Android is at an early stage in the mobile phone space, with only one shipped phone to date.
The iPhone has the first mover advantage, and one can hardly see that major US carriers ceding their control to Google, easily, either.
Consequently, Google and other Android-backers have a motivation to look for support in emerging or adjacent markets that might be disruptive to the phone ecosystem... (More on that, below).
What Android does have is talent, money, branding, and backing.
It also has a growing wealth of developer resources, albeit with some controversy over those who are 'insiders' vs. 'outsiders' in terms of development code access.
In Android's own words,
Android was built from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer.
It was built to be truly open.
For example, an application can call upon any of the phone's core functionality such as making calls, sending text messages, or using the camera, allowing developers to create richer and more cohesive experiences for users.
Android is built on the open Linux Kernel.
Furthermore, it utilizes a custom virtual machine that was designed to optimize memory and hardware resources in a mobile environment.
Android is open source; it can be liberally extended to incorporate new cutting edge technologies as they emerge.
The platform will continue to evolve as the developer community works together to build innovative mobile applications.
(
http://www.android.com/about/
)
One important novelty is Android's openness to leveraging information inside the device (i.e., GPS information, your phone book, your preferences) and hooking that up to information outside the device (i.e., on the Internet) That's intriguing and new. Some useful links to learn more about Android -
As always, Wikidia is also a great place to start - just search for 'Android.'
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android for embedded systems - what? how?
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But so far, Android has been largely a mobile phone play.
But conceptually, one can think through a future in which Android succeeds not directly in the competitive mobile phone space but rather in the (less competitive?) intelligent device, connected home, netbook / midi, fill-in-the-blank intelligent device, convergence space.
That's a mouthful, but the key concept is Android (with backers like Mentor Graphics) becoming the engine in converging devices like intelligent remote controls, set top boxes, or mobile phones that are smart phones.
In their press briefing, Mentor identified a number of potential targets for Android embedded - Telecom, consumer, medical, automotive, digital home, and white goods.
So here we have intelligent devices everywhere, running Android plus Mentor's Nucleus plus Linux.
That makes sense and plays to Mentor's strengths in GUI development, hard RTOSes (where needed), and services.
Moreover, coming from the EDA perspective, Mentor can see how its own customers struggle with software development - a platform like Android might be just the thing to improve software development times and score points with customers.
Indeed, an analogy was made at the press event:
"DOS is to Windows as Linux is to Android." - Glenn Perry, Mentor Graphics Embedded Systems General Manager.
It might sound like an SAT question, but what Mentor means is that Android has the potential to open up applications the way that Windows opened up the PC development environment when it was launched.
Android, after all, is an operating system that sits atop another operating system, which does curiously resemble the way the Microsoft Windows originally sat on top of DOS. But we digress.
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android and mentor: strategy
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Mentor's timing is impeccable.
The embedded industry is abuzz with confusion over why Intel acquired Wind River, and that leaves a vacuum in the Linux space (with the other major player being MontaVista). Whether planning or luck, Mentor's embrace of Linux at this point in time might wean some of Wind River's customers who are cynical enough to see the Wind acquisition as a potential boondoggle, protests by Wind River and Intel be damned.
So item No. 2 in Mentor's strategy (after item No. 1, embracing Android) was to recognize Linux among its customers, and to make a service play.
Hence the company acquired Embedded Alley, a Silicon Valley company with a strong reputation among the Linux community as a service provider.
No huge news here, but a service offering that will help Mentor win Linux-friendly customers and give it both sides of the envelope alongside its traditional hard RTOS offering, Nucleus.
Item No. 3 is to build on the company's long efforts in GUI development.
Product name:
Nucleus Graphics
. Since Android is all about mobile devices, and bringing that to devices beyond mobile, GUI development is going to be a key element.
Everything in the digital home needs to be easy-to-use, and Mr. Perry gave the example of the smart microwave.
Smart microwave, you ask? It seems silly but then when you realize that the device occupies prime eye-level space in the home, that there are million of them, that they have power, that they have display-space, you could imagine something like the Verizon Hub being integrated inside a Microwave to provide real-time weather, where-are-your-kids-info, recipes and the like.
To build such a microwave, you would need a development platform (e.g., Android), some great GUI development tools (e.g., Nucleus Graphics), and the royalty-free application rich ecosystem provided by Linux.
Mentor's strategy is announced and clear, so now we wait to see if momentum can be built.
Oh? Momentum? Look for announcements supporting Mentor Graphics from ARM, MIPS, Marvell, and RMI.
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feedback - read it:
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feedback - give it:
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Express Logic develops, markets and supports the ThreadX® real-time operating system (RTOS), NetX™TCP/IP networking stack, USBX™ USB stack, FileX® embedded file system, and PEGX™ GUI toolkit for embedded applications.
ThreadX is a royalty-free, full source code, small-footprint, low-overhead RTOS that is extremely easy to learn and use. ThreadX is one of the most widely deployed RTOS products in the world, with over 1.25 billion products based on ThreadX.
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