Category Archives: Wind River

News & Analysis, NFV, vCPE, Virtualisation, Wind River

Wind River launches vCPE NFV platform

Network Function VirtualisationIntel subsidiary Wind River has added to its NFV portfolio with the announcement of a new product which focuses on the virtualization of customer premises equipment (vCPE). The vendor claims it has strengthened its VNF offering to bring initiatives like vCPE management closer to reality.

Wind River’s new Titanium Server CPE software adds to the vendor’s existing NFV portfolio. vCPE is one of the primary NFV use cases mooted by the telecoms industry; the improvements to Wind River’s software could mean all functions traditionally configured on each piece of hardware at the customer’s premises can now be handled centrally and instantly replicated across the cloud.

According to Wind River, the improvements to the Titanium Server portfolio (Titanium Server and Titanium Server CPE) will create faster network performance, allow networks to ramp up in size instantly and simplify the commissioning of new additions to any network. The vendor also claims the Titanium Server portfolio’s new software stands up to the carrier grade needed for telecom networks.

The cost of administering moves and changes, which is often time consuming and labour intensive, is one of the areas that telcos view as ripe for efficiency improvements. However, the virtualization of CPE functions has proved a challenging ambition to fulfil. The replacement of a system which individually configures each physical appliance (such as a switch or handset) with a centrally managed one could slash operating expenditure (OPEX). The savings would come by substituting the work of multiple physical configurations, requiring a site visit, with a single software change that can be published to all devices on all points of the telecoms cloud, using the new Titanium Server CPE platform, according to Wind River.

Among the new features added to Titanium Server are dynamic CPU scaling, greater system scalability, a virtual switch packet trace tool and the capacity for bulk provisioning and automated deployment. The new release also now supports QinQ tunnelling, IPv6 support for all interfaces and has updated support for all the latest high-performance network interface cards (NICs). It also supports VNF access to hardware acceleration devices, such as the Intel Communications Chipset 8925 to 8955 Series.

The new incarnation of Titanium Server CPE launch follows collaboration with NFV software partners Brocade, Check Point, InfoVista and Riverbed.

Titanium Server and Titanium Server CPE will be showcased at Mobile World Congress 2016.

IBM, Internet of Things, IoT, News & Analysis, Wind River

Wind River and IBM to integrate their IoT clouds

IoT cloud iconIntel’s IoT software subsidiary Wind River is to work with IBM to make Industrial IoT projects run smoother and more efficiently. The two companies will work together on a series of initiatives aimed at clarifying their processes for each other, offering guidance to third parties and simplifying the task of integrating their respective systems with each other.

A published series of instructions, which IBM describes as ‘edge to cloud recipes’ aims to guide customers on how to integrate services from the IBM Watson IoT Cloud Platform with products from the Wind River Helix portfolio.

Any customers who use the recipes could, in theory, connect industrial devices running Wind River software to the IBM Watson IoT Cloud Platform and get access to IBM Bluemix cloud services and analytics. This, says Wind River, will help IoT developers develop smart connected devices more easily by cutting the time they’ll spend searching for relevant information and variables.

The IBM and Wind River ‘recipes’ and reference material will also help users with tasks such as device management and help users to apply IBM’s machine learning to the IoT. Other guidance that Wind River intends to offer clients and partners includes help on managing devices and systems in different vertical markets. Among the specialities on which guidance is available are smart buildings, transport, factory automation and the health sector.

Under the arrangement Wind River and IBM will provide elements that can be combined for a complete ‘edge-to-cloud’ IoT solution (a system connecting remote peripherals to the cloud). Detail is available on a range of Wind River operating systems, including VxWorks, Rocket and Pulsar Linux and Helix Cloud (Wind River’s family of software as a service offerings). Instructions are available on how to integrate each of these, in turn, with a range of IBM systems including IBM Watson IoT Cloud Platform, IBM Bluemix, and IBM IoT Real-Time Insights for processing device data.

connected car, Intel, Internet of Things, IoT, News & Analysis, Wind River

Wind River partners with Roland Berger and Ricardo to develop automatic driving systems

connected-car-normalIoT software company Wind River is to develop car automation software with civil engineering specialist Ricardo and consultancy Roland Berger.

In its car-making partnerships, Wind River will provide automotive software along with architectural and engineering support while Ricardo will integrate it with its physical vehicle systems. The projects will range in scope from advanced in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) to safe and secure advanced driver assist system (ADAS) technologies to autonomous driving.

Autonomous driving calls for advances in software, physical vehicle systems and intelligent connectivity within and outside of the car, according to Marques McCammon, general manager of connected vehicles at Wind River. These will only become a reality if Ricardo can integrate them, which means bringing together new vistas of algorithm development, sensor fusion and hardware integration, according to McCammon.

Wind River has also announced another partnership with global consultancy Roland Berger to help it confront the ‘slew of new challenges’ created by the jump in safety and security demands that all car makers now face. “Many in the industry are currently playing catch-up and looking to experts to fill in the gaps,” said Wolfgang Bernhart, senior partner and automotive expert at Roland Berger.

Car making clients of the two consultancies will receive software strategy direction from Wind River and Roland Berger. Wind River will provide software management, architectural and engineering support as each new car model’s development goes from the strategy exploration phase to the proof-of-concept and production phases. Roland Berger will deliver market insights, trend and business analysis will help design new innovative business models.

Meanwhile, Wind River’s autonomy within Intel looks set to end as plans have emerged to integrate it into the parent company by 2017. A statement outlining the plan was sent to Wind River employees earlier this week.

Intel bought Wind River for $884 million in 2009 and it has remained independent, but in early January president Barry Mainz left to be chief executive of MobileIron. An Intel spokeswoman told Fortune that incorporation of Wind River would be a logical next step. However, while the rationale is to align Wind River, it will retain its branding and continue to support non-Intel processors, the spokeswoman said.

Helix Cloud, Internet of Things, IoT, Wind River

Wind River launches comprehensive cloud suite

Cloud computing conceptEmbedded software vendor Wind River has launched what it describes as a ‘comprehensive cloud suite’ for multi-architecture operating systems.

The new Wind River range includes the Helix Cloud, Rocket and Pulsar Linux offerings which are designed to communicate across multiple devices, gateways and microcontroller units (MCUs).

The Helix Cloud is a family of software-as-a-service (SaaS) products including development tools, virtual labs and deployed devices. Their joint mission is to simplify and automate the building and managing of IoT technologies at every stage of the life cycle of a system, from design to decommissioning. The Helix Lab Cloud is a virtual hardware lab for simulating and testing IoT devices and complex systems. Meanwhile, the Device Cloud is designed for managing IoT devices and their data.

Wind River claims it can simplify edge-to-cloud development with a single operating system controlling all dialogue between the device and the cloud. Wind River’s Rocket is described as a tiny-footprint commercial-grade quality real-time operating system that’s directly connected to its Helix Cloud. This, it claims, creates the support for multiple architectures and applications running on the type of 32-bit MCUs used in small-footprint sensor hubs, wearables and edge devices.

Pulsar Linux is a small-footprint commercial-grade binary Linux OS based on the Wind River Linux distribution that connects directly to the Helix Cloud to run on applications scaling from 32-bit MCUs to 64-bit CPUs.

The platform independent Rocket and Pulsar Linux support Intel and ARM architectures and a range of mainstream commercial boards, so that apps can run on any device and the developer can create an open collaborative ecosystem.

Wind River partners include Advantech, Freescale, HCL Technologies, Texas Instruments and Xilinx. It has also launched a new developer programme for ISVs, OEMs, systems integrators, ODMs and cloud operators.

Intel, Internet of Things, Linux, M2M, News & Analysis, Open Source, Wind River

Wind River announces upgraded IoT software platform

internet of things farmingEmbedded tech vendor Wind River has announced an upgraded portfolio of IoT software development tools for the internet of things (IoT).

The wholly-owned Intel subsidiary made the announcement at the Embedded Linux Conference in Dublin this week, and claimed to bring added flexibility and interoperability to its open-source platform, Wind River Linux 8. It also says it’s thrown in improved user experience and scalability for addressing IoT, stating that a combination of its virtualization services also allows customers to begin developing apps for IoT platforms within minutes of set-up and installation.

Speaking on the development of the upgraded platform, which will underpin a number of Wind River’s existing technology profiles, general manager of OS platforms Dinyar Dastoor is proud of the work the firm’s doing in driving the development of IoT.

“Wind River Linux allows customers to extract vast amounts of business intelligence and value from their data, and supports devices of all sizes, architectures and industries – from general purpose and high-performing real-time devices to carrier grade, virtualization, and highly secure military applications,” he said. “With the latest version of Wind River Linux and our updated Open Virtualization profile, we are delivering a versatile and robust Linux offering to the market that is ideally suited for the development if IoT devices.”

Wind River’s Linux platform is born out of the Linux Foundation’s Yocto Project, a hardware-agnostic an open-source collaboration project designed to provide templates, tools and methodologies for implementing tailored Linux systems on any embedded product – hypothetically ideal for IoT products, software and infrastructures. Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation’s executive director, is looking forward to the company’s continued participation with the project, based on its extensive contribution thus far – Wind River has so far contributed more than one third of the lines of code used by Yocto.

“Wind River continues to do important work with the Linux community, as well as foster open-source innovation,” he said. “We look forward to the company’s ongoing contributions to the Yocto Project, and their market success with products like Wind River Linux.”

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