Wind River has introduced a commercial version of open source Android optimised on the OMAP 3 platform from Texas Instruments.
It marks Wind River’s first commercial version of open consortia-based software.
The development of open source communities and commercial-grade Linux is one example of how important a good software strategy is to a semiconductor company.
Intel’s acquisition of Wind River earlier this year was a clear recognition of this.
Wind River’s president, Ken Klein sees supporting multiple Linux operating systems as “the price of entry” into the embedded Linux market.
“There is Android, LiMo, and Moblin is coming on very strong,” says Klein.
“Make no mistake about Intel’s commitment to Linux, it has 500 engineers working on the Linux OS in its Moblin group. But we are in the business of commercialising Linux, and Intel is in the business of enabling Linux. This fits well.”
See: Wind River to be software company inside Intel, says Ken Klein
As well as commercial versions of Android and LiMo, Wind River also supports Moblin, Intel’s own Linux-based operating system.
The Android platform is a validated, fully compliant software platform based on the latest versions of the Android software development kit (SDK), available with pre-integrated software from initial partners Adobe, PacketVideo and Red Bend Software.
It is available with the following building blocks:
• Open source Android code validated and tested by Wind River in a rigorous process combining hundreds of manual test cases and tens of thousands of automated test scenarios including compliance with the latest Android Compatibility Test Suite (CTS);
• Pre-integrated third-party software, including existing Flash technology from Adobe, OpenCORE mobile multimedia software from PacketVideo, firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updating and device management software from Red Bend;
• Enhanced Android user interface and personalization options for such common branding functions as boot-up splash screen, locked idle screen, and termination screens and additional gesture-based choices for core phone functions;
• Extended framework and applications including master reset function, music player, performance and power management;
• Dedicated Wind River global customer support and services
• Optimization for leading mobile hardware including Texas Instruments’ OMAP34x and OMAP36x platforms.
Wind River and Texas Instruments are working together to optimise Android on TI’s OMAP34x and OMAP36x platforms.
Details about Wind River Platform for Android are available.