Wind River unveils graphics-rich Linux platform

BANGALORE, INDIA: Wind River announced the immediate availability of Wind River Linux 4, Update Pack 2, the latest release of its commercial embedded Linux runtime and development platform. It is the first commercial embedded Linux to provide a fully integrated graphics software stack, from the board to the user interface framework level, for the latest Intel and Texas Instruments’ processors.

The pre-integrated graphics stack within Wind River Linux includes GTK, Qt, X.Org and the Wind River Tilcon Graphics Suite. It works out of the box using the latest hardware and graphics drivers, including Intel Embedded Media and Graphics Driver on Intel Atom processor with OpenGL and PowerVR driver on Texas Instruments’ (TI) AM35x, AM37x, AM389x TI Sitara ARM microprocessors and OMAP35x processors with OpenGL ES. This stack bundles the latest versions of popular graphics applications and is optimized for embedded development. In addition, Linux Standards Base (LSB) certification assures compatibility with all LSB-compliant third-party applications.

“As deeply embedded devices become more connected and complex, there is an increasing move towards richer graphics and more sophisticated user interfaces across a wide range of industries. We’re rising to meet this need with the industry’s first commercial embedded Linux to supply a pre-integrated hardware-through-middleware graphics stack for multiple hardware platforms,” said Paul Anderson, vice president of marketing and strategy for Linux products at Wind River. “Our latest update pack adds significant new functionality, usability improvements and hardware support to our Wind River Linux offering, and empowers UI and HMI designers to create rich graphics with a smaller footprint, faster performance and lower power consumption than do-it-yourself alternatives.”

“Wind River’s introduction of a fully integrated graphics stack delivers significant benefits to customers and enables important open source technologies for the industry,” said Vasu Jakkal, senior marketing manager of low power embedded software, Intel. “With Intel’s Embedded Media and Graphics Driver, the latest release of Wind River Linux will give device manufacturers across a wide range of market segments the technology they need to rapidly build secure, reliable, graphics-optimized next-generation devices at a lower cost.”

“TI is continually seeking to add value to its complementary software offering to make embedded processing design even easier,” said Jake Alamat, director, marketing, Sitara ARM microprocessors, Texas Instruments. “Wind River’s Linux 4.2 integrated graphics stack works with our TI-provided Linux SDK and is bundled with our PowerVR driver to enable fast development of secure next-generation devices with high-end graphics.”

Other key features of Wind River Linux 4, Update Pack 2, include:
* Web 2.0 Cross Web Development Toolkit that enables developers to debug, deploy and test directly on targets using HTML/Javascript and web page rendering languages.
* Qt Development Toolkit optimized for embedded development, which can significantly increase productivity, reduce costs and shorten time to market.
* New security features, including strongSWAN, an open source VPN solution that improves IP security; and a new SEEdit feature that gives users simplified language for creating and editing the security policies that keep systems safe.
* Workbench enhancements and new tools for Linux developers for streamlined Linux development.

Anderson concluded: “Wind River Linux continues to deliver the best of open source technology, integrated and optimized for embedded development. We continue to evolve and enhance our Linux platform to help bring together all the components that companies need to develop, test and support world-class products quickly and cost-effectively.”

Wind River Linux was recently named the embedded Linux market leader for the third consecutive year by VDC Research Group. In VDC’s 2011 Linux in the Embedded Systems Market report, Wind River achieved the market share lead in 2010 with greater than 30 percent of total market revenue, more than two times the market share of the next closest competitor.