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MontaVista

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MontaVista Software, Inc.
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryInternet, Computer software
FoundedUnited States Menlo Park, California (September 7 1998)[1]
FounderJim Ready
Headquarters
United States Santa Clara, California
,
USA
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Rusty Harris
(CEO)
Jim Ready
(CTO)
ProductsMontaVista Linux · Mobilinux · DevRocket
Number of employees
Over 250[2] (June 20 2008)
WebsiteMVista.com

MontaVista Software is a software developer that develops embedded Linux system software, development tools, and related software. Its products are targeted at other corporations developing embedded systems such as automotive electronics, communications equipment, mobile phones, and other electronics devices and infrastructure.

MontaVista is based in Santa Clara, California and was founded in 1999 by James "Jim" Ready (previously at Mentor Graphics and creator of VRTX) and others. On November 10, 2009 Cavium Networks announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase MontaVista for $50 million.

Products

MontaVista Linux

May 12, 2009 MontaVista announced MontaVista Linux 6 (MVL6) comprised of Market Specific Distributions, MontaVista Integration Platform, Software Development Kit, MontaVista Zone Content Server, and support and services. There are a number of differences between MVL6 and previous MontaVista Linux products. The main ones are:

  • Market Specific Distributions (MSD) - Linux operating systems (Kernel + Userland) optimized for each specific semiconductor vendor's hardware.
  • MontaVista Integration Plaform - based on BitBake, analogous to “make,” which analyzes a set of directives and then builds a task dependency tree to satisfy a user command. BitBake then executes the defined tasks to completion.
  • MontaVista Zone Content Server - accessed from behind a proxy, or local mirror for offline operations, to fetch software and updates. Rather than depending on a slew of public HTTP, CVS, git, and Subversion servers across the Internet there is a single source for every original source archive and patch.

MontaVista Linux (formerly known as Hard Hat Linux) is a Linux distribution that has been enhanced to become a full fledged real-time operating system. The work on real-time performance has since continued to a point where MontaVista claims to support hard real-time tasks on embedded Linux as of MontaVista Linux 4.0, with response times as fast as other real-time operating systems.[3]

MontaVista sells "subscriptions," which consist of software, documentation, and technical support. The software includes a Linux kernel and toolchain aimed at a specific hardware configuration, collectively called a Linux Support Package, or LSP, and other integrated tools including the Eclipse-based DevRocket IDE.[4] The distribution is available in three editions, each aimed at different market segments: Professional Edition, Carrier Grade Edition, and Mobilinux.[5] The MontaVista Linux toolkit includes specific code libraries to easily migrate from Wind River Systems' VxWorks and the pSOS operating systems.

MontaVista Professional Edition

MontaVista Professional Edition (Pro) is targeted at general embedded Linux developers who want all the benefits of an open source development platform (open source, Linux, easily accessible software, etc) as well as additional MontaVista benefits including higher quality (fewer bugs), integration with open source tools for a particular hardware architecture, and support. Pro is targeted at intelligent device markets, including networking and communications, instrumentation and control, aerospace and defense, SOHO devices, and medical electronics.[6]

MontaVista Carrier Grade Edition

MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition (CGE) is a commercial-grade Linux development platform for developers working with RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability) managed hardware (HPI, IPMI) or custom hardware, who require long-term support and high availability. [7] Carrier Grade Linux is governed by the Linux Foundation CGL working group.

MontaVista Mobilinux

MontaVista Mobilinux is targeted at wireless handsets and other mobile devices such as GPS devices, portable medical devices, and wireless POS terminals. Mobilinux's key features include dynamic power management, real-time performance, fast booting, and small memory footprint.[8]

MontaVista DevRocket

MontaVista DevRocket is a set of Eclipse plug-ins for facilitating application and system development with MontaVista Linux. DevRocket integrated development environment runs on Linux, Solaris and Windows. It utilizes the Eclipse C++ Development Toolkit (CDT). Starting with DevRocket 5.0, users can add MontaVista's plug-ins into an existing Eclipse installation, or install Eclipse with the plugins already loaded.[4]

DevRocket is available in two varieties: a Platform Developer Kit (PDK) and Application Developer Kit (ADK). The Platform Developer Kit includes the ability to communicate with a target (RSE, SSH), create and manage file systems, debugging (kgdb), and performance tuning (memory leak, memory usage, system profiling). The application developer kit includes a virtual target for developing applications earlier in the development cycle, one-click edit/compile/debug, and performance tuning.[9]

Open Source contributions

MontaVista has a history of being a major contributor to the Linux kernel and the open source community. From the beginning, Jim Ready said he wanted to make it "100% pure Linux" under the GPL[10]. The core changes to make MontaVista Linux into a real-time operating system were made by Nigel Gamble and later updated by Robert Love.[11] Robert Love submitted the changes to the Linux kernel in 2001. The Linux 2.6 stable kernel series is the first to include similar features, such as priority-based preemption. As of 2008, MontaVista had contributed 1.2% of the Linux kernel, making it the 9th-largest corporate contributor to the Linux kernel, according to a survey by the Linux Foundation.[12]

MontaVista has strong connections with the development of Linux under the PowerPC architecture, and hosts a development Linux kernel source tree on http://source.mvista.com/.

MontaVista has also spun off independent open source projects based on a number of its features, including dynamic power management, high resolution POSIX timers, the pramfs file system[13], and the openais implementation of the SA Forum's Application Interface Specification.[14]

Vision Conference

In 2007, MontaVista hosted a conference on the subject of embedded Linux, called Vision. The conference included a keynote speech by Andrew Morton and drew roughly 400 attendees.

The 2008 Vision Summit was held at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. Speakers included MontaVista CEO Rusty Harris, Peter Kronowitt, an Intel software strategist, Freescale CTO Lisa Su, MontaVista CTO James Ready, OLPC kernel developer Deepak Saxena, and LWN.net Founder Jonathan Corbet[15]. It was noted that the Vision Summit drew a healthy crowd in comparison to Linux World despite being hosted by a single-vendor[16].

Meld

March 3, 2009, MontaVista Software announced[17] Meld embedded Linux community, a community for embedded Linux developers. It essentially is an internet forum specialized in questions and answers on the topics of embedded Linux - MontaVista specifically claims that meld targets all embedded Linux users, not just its own customers.

Distribution

Main article: List of devices that run MontaVista Linux

According to MontaVista, the Mobilinux operating system is used in 90 percent of Linux-based smartphones, totaling over 35 million phones and mobile devices[8]. Other versions of MontaVista Linux are used in devices made by a number of partners, including Sony Bravia TVs, NEC routers, and others, especially in Japan.[18] A version of MontaVista linux OS is used in Dell Latitude E4200 and E4300 notebooks[19][20] to provide the Latitude ON feature[21] .


Mobile phones

Motorola became the first company to use Linux on a mobile phone when it released the Motorola A760 to the Chinese market on February 16, 2003. Motorola chose to use MontaVista Linux in the Motorola A760 and future Linux-based phones, despite the fact that Motorola was a founding member of the competing Symbian OS.[22] Since then, Motorola has increased focus on its Linux platform and publicly stated that the future platform for all its mid- and high-tier mobile phones will be Linux with Java,[23] and other phone manufacturers NEC and Panasonic have developed a common platform based on MontaVista Linux.[24][25]

See also

References

  1. ^ MontaVista claims realtime support for Linux mobile
  2. ^ MontaVista company profile
  3. ^ MontaVista touts native hard real-time Linux
  4. ^ a b MontaVista official DevRocket page
  5. ^ MontaVista official Products page
  6. ^ MontaVista official Professional Edition details page
  7. ^ MontaVista official Carrier-Grade Edition details page
  8. ^ a b MontaVista official Mobilinux details page
  9. ^ MontaVista's embedded Linux app dev tools go "all-plugin"
  10. ^ An interview with MontaVista Founder Jim Ready
  11. ^ Updated Linux kernel preemption patches
  12. ^ Linux Kernel Development (April 2008)
  13. ^ Linux.com :: MontaVista Contributes to Open Source for CE Linux
  14. ^ About OpenAIS
  15. ^ http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7931130318.html
  16. ^ http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6152497557.html?kc=rss
  17. ^ http://www.mvista.com/press_release_detail.php?fid=news/2009/meld.html
  18. ^ MontaVista beefs up Japan presence
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference dellprrelease was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/10/22/Instanton_Dell_desktop_to_debut_next_week_1.html
  21. ^ http://mvista.com/blogs/jefro/2009/09/29/latitude-on-launched-today/
  22. ^ Motorola discloses that its new A760 handset uses MontaVista Linux
  23. ^ "Motorola Outlines Plans for RAZR Successor, The SCPL". PC Magazine. 2006. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
  24. ^ Linux powers DoCoMo's first 3.5G phone
  25. ^ NEC and Panasonic form mobile phone development joint venture
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