Commercial embedded Linux benefits: get to market faster

Organisations looking to create embedded products often utilise a commercially-supported embedded Linux platform for its customisable abilities, low-cost, and long-term support and maintenance. One of the main benefits of commercial embedded Linux is its ability to help get your products to market faster.

GET TO MARKET FASTER WITH COMMERCIALLY-SUPPORTED EMBEDDED LINUX

The right commercial embedded Linux provider will have the additional support and tools to help you speed up development processes and get to market faster.

BOARD SUPPORT PACKAGES (BSPS)

A board support package (BSP) is the layer of software that contains hardware-specific drivers and other routines that allow the operating system to function in a particular hardware environment. BSPs are customisable down to the exact system on a chip (SoC) and board configuration. Users can then determine which drivers and routines should be included in the build based on their hardware and software selections. BSPs include a custom Linux (or another OS if applicable) set up to ensure maximum optimisation for the embedded environment.

BSPs provide a polished development and production environment that are perfectly tailored to your use case.

BSPs provide massive time savings and a big leap forward in reliability and quality compared to building your own drivers and hardware support package. By using a commercially-supported BSP, like those from Wind River, you are able to benefit from increased speed, additional expertise, and economies of scale. These packages come with support and maintenance so if you ever run into a problem you can get the help you need.

CLOUD-NATIVE ARCHITECTURE AND CONTAINER TECHNOLOGY

Cloud-native architectures and containers are widely deployed in enterprise IT environments but generally not for embedded systems. However, the benefits of containers still apply to embedded systems:

• Code reusability
• Efficient maintenance
• Platform independence
• Optimised resource utilisation

Previously, leveraging cloud-native architectures and containers for embedded systems involved creating custom solutions that caused support and maintenance nightmares. However, the latest version of Wind River Linux provides substantial support for teams looking to use containers and cloud-native architectures with their embedded systems. Wind River Linux includes pre-integrated components from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) configured to deliver a fully functional solution for embedded systems.

Cloud-native architectures and containers have the potential to provide the same benefits to embedded systems as they do to other enterprise IT environments.

DEVELOPMENT AND BUILD TOOLS

Using a commercially-supported Linux distribution provides you with additional value-added development tools that go beyond what is available from open source. In addition to the standard coding, testing, and debugging capabilities, commercial integrated development environments provide additional tools for:

• Building the Linux and device image
• System performance and behavioural analysis
• Memory profiling
• Tracing
• Full system simulation

Commercial embedded Linux provides development tools that go beyond just the command line open source options.

COMMERCIALLY-SUPPORTED EMBEDDED LINUX FROM WIND RIVER

Commercial Linux from Wind River provides you with everything you need for your embedded products. By supplying training, services, maintenance, and support you can significantly increase productivity and get to market faster while also cutting costs. Interested in learning more about commercially-supported embedded Linux? Download Wind River's complete eBook, Embedded Linux: Prototype to Production, to get an in-depth analysis.

Courtesy of Wind River.