Currently, many electronic products manufacturers are used for embedded software development methods and tools are also in the "Workshop" era, making companies increasing the difficulty of product development in invisible. Especially in today's electronic product manufacturing, embedded software is one of the cores of determining product competitiveness, and its advantages and disadvantages directly depend on the development of embedded software development platform. Then, enhance the level of embedded software development platform, where should you start?
System integration is an entry point
IDC has shown a survey of dozens of electronic vendors in the world. The cost used for embedded software has reached $ 23 billion a year, of which 91% is used to integrate various embedded software modules, and they are really used to buy these The cost of software and services only accounts for 9%.
Unlike common PCs and server software, embedded software is mainly coordinated with the operation of each part of the device, and does not direct direct contact with equipment users. The operating environment of the PC and server software is standardized, and the operating environment of embedded software changes with electronic devices, and special design, development and optimization must be performed for different electronics. At present, the cost of electronic product companies for purchasing operating systems and middleware has little costs, and most costs have been used in the development of system integration and application layers, causing huge human and financial resources. Therefore, the labor cost of reducing the software is an important breakthrough in the overall cost of the product development. At present, more and more electronic vendors take OEM ways out of hardware manufacturing, and the competitive advantage of the product is more reflected in software design, and the role of software engineers play is also increasingly important.
Commercialization has become a mainstream trend
More than 10 years ago, the embedded operating system was developed by e-product manufacturers, and now people have generally accepted commercialization of embedded operating systems. The development of market demand and technology not only requires commercialization of operating system, development environment and middleware, will also gradually be commercialized.
There is a general rule in the world of science and technology - standing on the shoulders of the former, fully utilizing the results of the former people, focusing on their own strengths, with unique competitive advantage. In terms of embedded software development, the existing research results of the previous people have been made by purchasing, which is an important embodiment of such a general rule. In fact, in addition to the embedded operating system, there are countless reusable commercial embedded software modules on the market.
A few days ago, the United States Fenghe Company launched a Windriver Platform that not only contains embedded software development tools commonly used by all walks of life, but also has a lot of work in system integration, which is designed to make electronic product companies don't have to be self-sufficient. Developing the general features of those people, but should release more resources to improve their unique competitiveness. In addition, Microsoft Windows CE, Linux and other embedded development tools enter this market, but also bring new business models for this field.
Platform steps into mature stages
Another meaning of the platform is standardization, and the important embodiment of standardization is a wide range of user groups. The embedded software development platform should have the characteristics of high level, high hardware support, highly integrated, high reliability, and the entry cost is relatively low, which is convenient for users to accept.
Over the years, embedded software development tools are a relatively closed field compared to standardized servers and PC software. With Microsoft Windows CE and many embedded Linux entered this field, this closed situation began to break. Generality, commercialization, low entry threshold, is the advantage of these later people. However, in terms of system reliability and development experience, embedded software professional manufacturers such as wind rivers still occupy advantage, especially in the field of aviation, defense military.
In the face of Windows CE and Embedded Linux, traditional embedded software vendors have also positively responded that they have adjusted business models, which greatly reduces the entry threshold for commercial embedded software development platform. Let electronic product enterprises conduct standardized development work on a reliable commercial platform, which is the value of professional embedded software tool research and development. Platform industry is a senior stage
Embedded software platform vendors must extract common features from the application needs of electronic product manufacturers, and integrate these features into their development platforms, only in this way, it can have applicability within a certain range.
Based on this understanding, some experienced embedded software professional manufacturers not only study the universal demand in embedded software development work, but extract common things from them, form universal applicable development platforms, and is committed to studying different industries for embedding The special needs of software development launched an embedded software development platform for a specific industry.
Fenghe Company's Wind River platform integrates an operating system, development tool, networking module, communication interface, equipment management, etc., providing a full range of support for the development of electronic products. At the same time, it also combines related middleware, protocols, and tools to provide relatively universal basic modules for different industries. This approach not only changes the business model of Fenghe, but also changes the work mode of customers and even the entire embedded software industry, providing more direct support for electronic product manufacturers to improve customer satisfaction and product market competitiveness.
Wind River Platform Product Architecture
In summary, the trend of embedded software development platform is intensifying that commercial embedded software development platform is rapidly replacing its own development tools, and the embedded software development platform for various industries is winning the wide recognition of the electronic industry.
