Wind River could become the software company inside Intel, and the model is IBM.
This is the view of Wind River’s president, Ken Klein, talking to Electronics Weekly just months after Intel’s acquisition of the operating system and development tool developer.
“We are attempting to build a large software company within Intel. We have a great model for this, and that model is IBM,” says Klein.
“And IBM generates 40% of its profits from software.”
But Klein is determined that Wind River will not lose its identity in the process.
“The first aim is to grow the Wind River business, and this means our silicon neutrality is important, as is support for other operating systems,” says Klein.
This is apparent from the company’s approach to the Linux market, which it sees as strategically important for the future.
Wind River has commercial versions of Android and LiMo, as well as Moblin, Intel’s own Linux-based operating system.
Ken Klein on embedded Linux
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: Analysis: Is Intel starting to look more like ARM?
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 is a clear recognition of this.
“Whereas in the past silicon vendors perhaps did just enough software development to win the socket, now they recognise this is no longer sufficient. The software needs to be optimised into the silicon,” says Klein.
“And with multicore, the software complexity has gone up by an order of magnitude.”
According to Klein, these are early days for multicore. “But the potential is enormous,” he says. “Wind River is not just selling a hypervisor, it also sells the runtime tools, the VxWorks RTOS and debuggers – the complete system.”
Even in multicore software development, Wind River does not intend to see its own product strategies submerged within Intel.
“We are taking an open OS approach,” says Klein.
Ken Klein on multicore development
Intel has a heavy involvement in both multicore hardware and software development, and Klein says this can benefit Wind River.
“Intel’s investment in multicore will have a long-term impact on the business. But it also provides help in supplementing work on Intel multicore architectures, which means I can make more investments in non-Intel projects, such as with Texas Instruments, Freescale, Cavium and RMI,” he says.
“But make no mistake, this is not business as usual for us.”
These are still the early days of the acquisition, but already there are joint projects between the two businesses.
“Intel may be able to optimise its silicon for our software. This would never have happened in the past,” says Klein.
“We are also doing a lot of commercialising of Intel software products, which Wind River could eventually sell.”
There are also likely to be benefits in the development of design tools and partner programmes.
While the combined group will have its strengths, Klein is convinced that the real strength will come from Wind River retaining its commercial independence.
“There are ways to leverage the Intel relationship – for example, its sales channels and its relationship with Microsoft – it is not just about resources,” says Klein.
So by becoming the software company within Intel, is there a danger that Wind River will be just a commercial lever for Intel’s silicon business?
“No,” says Klein. “Some of the things which are necessary for our business may not be congruent with Intel.
“First and foremost, our success will be measured on software sales.”