Multicore Packet Processing Forum

Posts Tagged ‘embedded Linux’

By Eric Carmes – 6WIND Founder and CEO

You may consider this post is not really in the scope of the Forum as it doesn’t really address a multicore topic but I think Linux is a technology that a very large number of multicore users are familiar with.

As you certainly know, the embedded Linux market has recently changed significantly after the acquisition of Wind River by Intel and MontaVista by Cavium Networks. Both acquirers have made similar communications to the market: nothing is going to change as both Wind River and MontaVista will keep their own businesses and continue to support multiple processor architectures. However, having two major embedded Linux providers acquired by processor companies leads to several strategic questions for the whole ecosystem.

I don’t want to comment on the strategy of two companies that are both very successful. My focus is the Linux market itself. First of all, the current market situation seems quite paradoxical. Linux is an Open Source technology so in principle available to everybody, while the market is concerned about acquisitions of commercial Linux companies.

The embedded Linux business is not simple. As opposed to the server & PC markets that are dominated by a single architecture, there are many different platforms to support in the embedded world and a generic solution does not fit all. The embedded world requires more customisation and a lot of customers do not want to manage Linux support and integration by themselves. However, for companies providing Linux services for the embedded world, business is challenging as the return on investment is lower due to the amount of platform-specific work that is required. It can be noted that a lot of Linux companies also have a proprietary software business (Wind River, ENEA, Mentor Graphics…).

What is the appropriate business model around Linux? There are several players. Processor companies distribute their own Linux. For multicore processors, Cavium has its SDK, Netlogic its RMIOS, Freescale its LTIB, etc. Their primary goal is to provide an environment that enables their customers to develop applications, accelerating the customers’ time-to-market and their own processor sales. These distributions are the first to be available. Commercial distributions are available for a large range of processors but are typically released several months after the processor companies’ own versions. Software service companies can customise existing distributions for customers. End customers may decide to maintain their own distributions using either internal R&D or outsourcing companies.

The final decision obviously belongs to the end customer or OEM. Recent acquisitions have the potential to change the business model and support model for commercial distributions. Will OEM customers change their provider because they consider there is a risk to use distributions that in future may no longer be supported on the processor architecture that they have selected? Will there be new major independent players? Will the embedded market be attractive to Linux providers who currently focus on distributions for servers? Will OEM customers decide to maintain their own distributions?