MontaVista

Last updated

MontaVista Software
Industry Internet, Software
Founded Menlo Park, California (September 7, 1998) [1]
FounderJim Ready
Headquarters
San Jose, California
,
United States
Key people
Ravi Gupta (CEO)
Products MontaVista Linux

MontaVista DevRocket

CGX

MVShield
OwnerPrivate equity investors
Number of employees
Over 250 [2] (March 9, 2021)
Website www.mvista.com

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

Contents

MontaVista is based in Santa Clara, California and was founded in 1999 by James "Jim" Ready (formerly at Mentor Graphics and creator of Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX)) and others. On November 10, 2009 Cavium Networks announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase MontaVista for $50 million. After Cavium got acquired by Marvell, Montavista operated as an independent entity. [3]

Products

Linux

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

MontaVista Linux (formerly named Hard Hat Linux) is a Linux distribution that has been enhanced to become a full 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. [4]

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 (LSP), and other integrated tools including the Eclipse-based DevRocket integrated development environment (IDE). [5] The distribution is available in three editions, each aimed at different market segments: Professional Edition, Carrier Grade Edition, and Mobilinux. [6] The MontaVista Linux toolkit includes specific code libraries to easily migrate from Wind River Systems' VxWorks and the pSOS operating systems.

OpenCGX

Project OpenCGX is an open and free to use embedded Linux distribution from MontaVista Software LLC. OpenCGX is based on MontaVista’s eleventh generation Carrier Grade Linux. Engineers can quickly jumpstart their ARM and x86 development with a full embedded Linux distribution that is easily customizable. OpenCGX in its introduction is based on Yocto 2.4 with Linux Kernel 4.14 (or latest LTS kernel) and GNU 7.2 toolchain.

Carrier Grade Express (CGX)

MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade eXpress (CGX) is MontaVista's main operating system product.

Carrier Grade Edition

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

DevRocket

MontaVista DevRocket is a set of Eclipse plug-ins for facilitating application and system development with MontaVista Linux. DevRocket integrated development environment (IDE) runs on Linux, Solaris and Windows. It uses 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. [5]

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 use, 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. [8]

Services

Custom Hardware Enablement

RTOS/Legacy Migration

System Certification

MontaVista Linux is being used in applications within IT and telecom that need to be certified according to Common Criteria, up to EAL4+ level. Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ (EAL4+) is commonly used to secure connectivity in critical environments, such as fire and police departments, or aviation and industry control systems. With the help of EAL4+ these critical environments can, for example, ensure secure and safe phone calls, control communication in-flight and for the assembly line, and achieve secure internet access.

Legacy products

Several legacy products are available from MontaVista under long-term support agreements. [9]

Mobilinux

MontaVista Mobilinux is for wireless handsets and other mobile devices such as Global Positioning System (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. [10]

Professional Edition

MontaVista Professional Edition (Pro) is for general embedded Linux developers. Pro is for intelligent device markets, including networking and communications, instrumentation and control, aerospace and defense, small office/home office (SOHO) devices, and medical devices. [11] Future development of MontaVista Pro has been folded into MontaVista Linux, effectively ending this as a separate edition starting version 5.0.24.

Open source contributions

MontaVista has a history of being a major contributor to the Linux kernel and the open source community. From the start, Jim Ready said he wanted to make it "100% pure Linux" under the GPL. [12] The core changes to make MontaVista Linux into a real-time operating system were made by Nigel Gamble and later updated by Robert Love. [13] 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. [14]

MontaVista has also spun off independent open source projects based on several of its features, including dynamic power management, high resolution POSIX timers, the pramfs file system, [15] and the openais implementation of the Service Availability Forum's (SA Forum) Application Interface Specification. [16]

Distribution

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. [17] A version of MontaVista Linux OS is used in Dell Latitude E4200 and E4300 notebooks [18] [19] to provide the Latitude ON feature. [20]

Cisco NX-OS is based on HardHat Linux. [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

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIPS Technologies</span> American fabless semiconductor design company

MIPS Tech LLC, formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. and MIPS Technologies, Inc., is an American fabless semiconductor design company that is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of RISC CPU chips based on it. MIPS provides processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking, embedded, Internet of things and mobile applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VxWorks</span> Real-time operating system

VxWorks is a real-time operating system developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, deterministic performance and in many cases, safety and security certification for industries such as aerospace, defense, medical devices, industrial equipment, robotics, energy, transportation, network infrastructure, automotive, and consumer electronics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Morton (computer programmer)</span> Australian software engineer (born 1959)

Andrew Keith Paul Morton is an Australian software engineer, best known as one of the lead developers of the Linux kernel. He is currently a co-maintainer of the Ext3 file system, the journaling layer for block devices (JBD) and Memory Management.

Wind River Systems, also known as Wind River, is an Alameda, California–based company, subsidiary of Aptiv PLC. The company develops embedded system and cloud software consisting of real-time operating systems software, industry-specific software, simulation technology, development tools and middleware.

Computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel are used in embedded systems such as consumer electronics, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment, spacecraft flight software, and medical instruments in general.

MotoMagx was a Linux kernel-based mobile operating system developed and launched in 2007 by Motorola to run on their mid-to-high-end mobile phones. The system was based on MontaVista's Mobilinux. Originally intended for 60% of their upcoming devices, it was soon dropped in favor of Android and Windows Mobile operating systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorola A780</span> Motorola device

The Motorola A780 is the second cellular PDA running the Linux operating system.

A Bluetooth stack is software that is an implementation of the Bluetooth protocol stack.

Timesys Corporation is a company selling Linux open source software security, engineering services, and development tools, for the embedded software market. The firm also helps software development teams build and maintain a custom Linux platform for embedded processors from integrated circuit manufacturers such as Atmel, Freescale, Intel, Texas Instruments, and Xilinx.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenEZX</span> Open-source software

OpenEZX was a project active from 2004 to 2008, which gathered information about the Linux based Motorola EZX phone platform.

Open Kernel Labs is a privately owned company that develops microkernel-based hypervisors and operating systems for embedded systems. The company was founded in 2006 by Steve Subar and Gernot Heiser as a spinout from NICTA. It was headquartered in Chicago, while research and development was located in Sydney, Australia. The company was acquired by General Dynamics in September 2012.

LTTng is a system software package for correlated tracing of the Linux kernel, applications and libraries. The project was originated by Mathieu Desnoyers with an initial release in 2005. Its predecessor is the Linux Trace Toolkit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bada</span> Discontinued mobile operating system

Bada is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Samsung Electronics for devices such as mid- to high-end smartphones and tablet computers. The name is derived from "바다 (bada)", meaning "ocean" or "sea" in Korean. All phones running Bada were branded with the name Wave, unlike Samsung's Android devices which are branded as Galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motorola A910</span> Mobile phone

The Motorola A910 is a clamshell mobile phone from Motorola, which uses MontaVista Linux as the operating system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sailfish OS</span> Mobile operating system

Sailfish OS is a Linux-based operating system based on free software, and open source projects such as Mer as well as including a closed source UI. The project is being developed by the Finnish company Jolla.

Mobilinux is a discontinued Linux distribution by MontaVista. It was announced on April 25, 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OpenHarmony</span> Family of open-source operating systems based on OpenHarmony

OpenAtom OpenHarmony, or abbreviated as OpenHarmony (OHOS), is a family of open-source distributed operating systems based on HarmonyOS derived from LiteOS, donated the L0-L2 branch source code by Huawei to the OpenAtom Foundation. Similar to HarmonyOS, the open-source distributed operating system is designed with a layered architecture, which consists of four layers from the bottom to the top, i.e., the kernel layer, system service layer, framework layer, and application layer. It is also an extensive collection of free software, which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems via Kernel Abstraction Layer subsystems.

References

  1. ↑ Watch, Wireless (October 18, 2004). "MontaVista claims realtime support for Linux mobile". Theregister.co.uk. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  2. ↑ "MontaVista company profile". Mvista.com. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  3. ↑ "MontaVista Software- Commercial Embedded Linux Solutions".
  4. ↑ "MontaVista touts native hard real-time Linux". Archived from the original on September 4, 2012.
  5. 1 2 "MontaVista official DevRocket page". Mvista.com. Archived from the original on January 5, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  6. ↑ "MontaVista official Products page". Mvista.com. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  7. ↑ "MontaVista official Carrier-Grade Edition details page". Mvista.com. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  8. ↑ "MontaVista's embedded Linux app dev tools go "all-plugin"". Archived from the original on September 6, 2012.
  9. ↑ MontaVista, Product Lifecycle (March 10, 2021). "Product Lifecycle".
  10. ↑ "MontaVista official Mobilinux details page". Mvista.com. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  11. ↑ "MontaVista official Professional Edition details page". Mvista.com. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  12. ↑ "An interview with MontaVista Founder Jim Ready". Archived from the original on January 28, 2013.
  13. ↑ "Updated Linux kernel preemption patches". Lwn.net. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Linux Kernel Development (April 2008)". Archived from the original on June 3, 2008.
  15. ↑ "Linux.com :: MontaVista Contributes to Open Source for CE Linux".
  16. ↑ "About OpenAIS". Openais.org. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  17. ↑ "MontaVista beefs up Japan presence". Archived from the original on July 10, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Newsroom". Dell. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  19. ↑ Schwankert, Steven (October 22, 2008). "Instant-on Dell desktop to debut soon | Hardware". InfoWorld. Archived from the original on October 29, 2008. Retrieved 2012-01-12.
  20. ↑ "Latitude ON Launched Today | blog.mvista.com". Mvista.com. September 29, 2009. Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  21. ↑ "Hacking NX-OS Part 3 | Maximum Entropy".
  22. ↑ "Motorola discloses that its new A760 handset uses MontaVista Linux". Archived from the original on January 28, 2013.
  23. ↑ Segan, Sascha (July 26, 2006). "Motorola Outlines Plans for RAZR Successor, The SCPL". PC Magazine. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
  24. ↑ "Linux powers DoCoMo's first 3.5G phone". Archived from the original on July 10, 2012.
  25. ↑ "NEC and Panasonic form mobile phone development joint venture". Archived from the original on July 19, 2012.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.