FPGA Central

Embedded Technology Journal Update


a techfocus media publication :: February 24, 2009 :: volume XIV, no. 08









FROM THE EDITOR



Free is a powerful word. But there’s free and then there’s free. As GNU guru Richard Stallman famously quipped, “there’s free as in ‘free speech’ and free as in ‘free beer.’” Which kind of free do you want? Open-source software is a popular free alternative to commercial compilers, operating systems, applications, or middleware. But is it really a no-cost option? Or are the costs merely hidden? Or just shifted to another department (i.e., not yours)? If there’s no such thing as a free lunch, who’s picking up the tab?

Thanks for reading! If there's anything we can do to make our publications more useful to you, please let us know at: comments (AT) embeddedtechjournal (DOT) com. If you'd rather sound off in public, please post your comments or questions in our new Journal Forums.

Jim Turley – Editor
Embedded Technology Journal









EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS











AMCC and DENX at EmbeddedWorld 2009, Nuremberg, Germany, March 3-5, 2009! Visit our co-exhibit in Hall 9, Booth 375 to learn how AMCC and DENX are driving new technologies and accelerating product development in the international embedded community.
See AMCC's New PowerPC 460EX Reference Design demo and the Arches Reference Design Dual PowerPC AMC Compliant demo




















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LATEST NEWS



February 24, 2009



Robotics Trends Announces RoboBusiness Conference & Exposition 2009 Academic Outreach Program



NEC Electronics Europe introduces higher-performance DPAK package for PowerMOSFETs in automotive applications



Faster ARM Cortex-M3 processor debugging with new release of IAR Embedded Workbench



QNX Changes the Rules for In-vehicle Software Development



February 23, 2009



Axis Network Technology Launches Super Efficient, Triple Mode HSPA/LTE/WiMAX Power Amplifier Module and IP Linearisation Solution



ARM Launches Its Smallest, Lowest Power, Most Energy Efficient Processor



PLX Technology Now Sampling PCI Express Switches Showcasing Integrated DMA



Atmel and TazTag Collaborate to Offer the First Secure NFC Electronic Wallet



Silicon Labs Introduces Highest Performance Embedded Wireless Solution



EU’s INTERESTED project to target the rapid design, prototyping and code generation of complex embedded systems and software



February 19, 2009



MicroTechnology goes global - Miniature solutions that make the world go round



LSI Corporation Selects Synopsys as Its Primary EDA Partner



Visit LiPPERT Embedded Computers at the Embedded World in Nuremberg!



February 18, 2009



D2 Technologies’ SoftDSP VoIP Codec Provides Leading-Edge Performance on RMI’s Multi-core and Multi-Threaded XLS® Processor



NTRU Announces That IEEE Has Approved the Standardization of NTRUEncrypt™



RMI Showcases Advanced Processor for Mobile Media Devices with 3D Graphics Acceleration and High Performance at less than 1/2 Watt



Imagination and Samsung partner to demo advanced graphics on new Omnia HD i8910 smartphone



Tekmos Introduces 'Drop in Replacement' for Intel 80C51FA With TK80C51FA MCU



CURRENT FEATURE ARTICLES

Penguins, Bees, Cathedrals and Wikis
The Changing Face of Open Source and Collaboration
(Dick Selwood)
Software Archeology
Modernizing Old Systems (Bryon Moyer)
Cleaning Up the Garbage
(Bryon Moyer)
Freescale Bets on “Net-Book” Processor Chip
(Jim Turley)
Buy a Processor; Get an Operating System
(Jim Turley)
The End of Silicon Valley
(Jim Turley)
Sun Starts to Flame Out
(Jim Turley)
Coverity Enforces Software Architecture
(Jim Turley)

JOURNAL WEBCASTS



CHALK TALK From Desktop to Target: What You Need From A Development Suite. Is embedded software development and debug a challenge for your team? Join Amelia Dalton as she chats with Jit Sivalogan of Mentor Graphics about setting up a productive environment for embedded development. (Mentor Graphics)

CHALK TALK Simplified Verification of DSP Algorithms in Hardware. Moving algorithms from MATLAB to FPGAs? Join Amelia Dalton as she explores options for verifying DSP designs implemented in FPGAs with Tim Vanevenhoven from Xilinx. (Xilinx)

CHALK TALK Using Embedded Hypervisors in Mobile Devices. Join Amelia Dalton as she explores the use of embedded hypervisors to create safe and secure software for mobile devices with Rob McCammon of Open Kernel Labs. (Open Kernel Labs)

CHALK TALK Embedded Networking With MicroBlaze and Spartan-3A FPGAs. Join Amelia Dalton as she works her way to "Hello World" on an FPGA-based embedded system with Xilinx Spartan-3A and MicroBlaze. (Xilinx)



[click here for more webcasts]











Penguins, Bees, Cathedrals and Wikis
The Changing Face of Open Source and Collaboration (Dick Selwood)



This was going to be such a simple piece: a quick look at some of the developments in the use of open source in the embedded arena, a quick update on Eclipse, perhaps a comparison of the positive and negative aspects of open source compared with proprietary tools, and a final summary.

Unfortunately, I began to become more and more aware that the open source landscape is changing and that a new paradigm is appearing. The Oxford English Dictionary defines paradigm as "a pattern or model, an exemplar." I am using it here, not in the PR sense of something vaguely new but, as I hope will become clear, in the sense that the changes occurring are already drastically altering the way in which the tools for developing embedded systems are created and may, in time, alter the systems themselves.

Let’s look at some straws in the wind:



Microsoft (one is tempted to say, “of all companies&rdquo has set up an “Open Source Technology Centre” and, amongst a raft of other projects, announced this week that it is donating code to an Apache project.

Wind River’s Linux-related revenues in Q2 of their financial year 2009 were up 60 percent year-over-year, to $10,111,000, which was 11 percent of the total revenues for the quarter.



[more]












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