Full Description
Wind River Systems, Inc. (Wind River), incorporated in February 1983, is a provider device software optimization (DSO). The Company develops, markets and sells operating systems, middleware and software development tools that allow its customers to develop, run, and manage their device products. Wind River offers its customers a choice of real-time operating systems and open-source, commercial-grade Linux operating systems. The Company also offers its Eclipse-based Workbench software development suite that allows its customers to manage the design, development, debugging and testing of their device software systems, as well as device test solutions that allow its customers to test, diagnose and resolve defects in device software. Its customers manufacture devices as varied as set-top boxes, automobile braking and navigation systems, mobile handsets, Internet routers, avionics control panels and coronary pacemakers. The Company is organized its operations into four product divisions: VxWorks, Linux, Tools and Device Test. On October 15, 2008, the Company acquired approximately 99% of the outstanding shares of MIZI Research, Inc. In July 2009, Intel Corporation completed the acquisition of Wind River.
VxWorks Products
Wind River offers a series of platform products based on its VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS). The platforms provide a scalable development and on-chip debugging environment built on open standards and industry tools, the industry’s most trusted commercial-grade RTOS and tightly integrated run-time technologies. Its VxWorks platforms are suited for embedded applications that require small memory footprints, real-time performance, safety or mission-critical reliability and high levels of security. Wind River’s latest VxWorks platforms introduce symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) to make the promise of multicore processors real. In addition, it has integrated a portfolio of Advanced Networking Technologies into its VxWorks platforms. These technologies provide advanced networking protocols, security, wireless, and mobility capabilities for markets such as wireless infrastructure, network infrastructure and consumer devices.
Linux Products
Wind River has been offering a series of platform products based on the Linux open-source operating system for more than four years. For device manufacturers, Wind River offers a commercial grade Linux platform that provides the benefits of open source innovation combined with commercial grade integration, testing and support. Wind River’s Linux as a commercially supported and tested open source offering that allows them to select, build, integrate, debug, test and support multiple system packages and components from among the many available options. Wind River’s open source products provide an alternative to its customers for the significant internal development resources required to package and support a Linux platform across an enterprise, to monitor and integrate patches to the Linux kernel and related subsystems and packages and to deploy updates.
Tools and Common Technologies
Wind River Workbench is integrated development suite for developing, testing, and optimizing device software that runs on its VxWorks or Linux-based platforms. Workbench integrates a set of purpose-built developer tools that simplify and accelerate the creation of device software applications for those platforms. Workbench is designed to allow companies to standardize on a single development tools platform across projects and teams, optimizing device software development processes and significantly reducing time-to-market. The Company’s product line includes Wind River Workbench, On-Chip Debugging Edition, JTAG debugging solution with associated hardware connection options: Wind River ICE 2, Wind River Probe, and Wind River Trace 2. Wind River ICE 2 and Wind River Trace 2 are new products that offer scalable, non-intrusive system-level debug and analysis capabilities for optimizing device software on multicore systems-on-a-chip (SOCs). In addition to providing on-chip debugging tools for the development environment, Wind River also offers a test and manufacturing solution that allows for the integration of on-chip debugging into test automation programs. This product uses Wind River ICE 2 and Wind River Probe combined with a custom test and manufacturing software solution: the Wind River On-Chip Debugging API and Utility.
Device Test Solutions
The Company’s Device Test solutions allow quality assurance (QA) and development engineers to collaborate and remotely diagnose and repair in real time. It enables teams to efficiently deploy tests, perform fact-based analysis and rapidly resolve issues encountered throughout the testing phase. To complement its software and hardware products, Wind River offers design services, technical consulting and educational services. It helps its customers augment their staff and productivity through its education services and technical consulting services. The Company also provides outsourced design services for customers’ products or applications. These design services may encompass a range of services, including project-managed custom hardware development, software development and product integration.
The Company competes with MontaVista Software Inc., LynuxWorks Inc., TimeSys Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, ENEA OSE Systems AB, LynuxWorks Inc., Green Hills Software Inc. and QNX Software Systems Ltd.
