San Francisco, CA — (press release) — CMP Media today announced that a debate focusing on the pros and cons of “free,” or open source, software and its role in the embedded industry will be an opening day highlight of the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC). Moderated by Michael Barr, editor-in-chief of Embedded Systems Programming magazine, the panel will pit four embedded software experts against each… other in a debate-style discussion.

The panel, “The Open-Source Movement: Boon or Bane for Embedded Systems Developers?” is scheduled for Monday, September 25 at 6:00 p.m. at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts, San Jose, Calif. Panelists will define and debate the risks and rewards of open source, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this model for the developer, the end-user and the support vendor.

The proponents for open source, Michael Tiemann, chief technical officer of Red Hat and Bill Gatliff, independent consultant and regular contributor to Embedded Systems Programming, claim that open source promotes software flexibility, reliability and quality, making it particularly useful for embedded systems. John Fogelin, vice president and general manager of Wind River's Platforms business unit and Steven Stolper, technical manager at Silicon Spice will argue that commercially distributed software tools can be integrated with open source code for even greater advantages.

The panel is part of a comprehensive program of classes, seminars, exhibits and special events providing a closer look at the technologies driving advanced electronic devices and intelligent appliances. Running from September 24 – 28, 2000 at the San Jose Convention Center, the eleventh annual ESC is the country's top educational event for engineers, designers, and managers working with embedded systems.

“I want the audience to come away enlightened — with a better understanding and an opinion on this controversial topic,” said Barr. “The panelists have a great mix of experience working with both open source and traditional software. For embedded system design there are a number of advantages and disadvantages on both sides, and we're expecting some heated debate.”

The panelists bring a wealth of software development experience to the discussion. Michael Tiemann is a true open source pioneer. He has made fundamental contributions to the GNU project (the project that inspired Linus Torvalds to create the Linux kernel), co-founded the first company based on an open source business model, and helped bring commercial open source solutions to the embedded systems market. Today, as CTO of Red Hat, Tiemann continues to shape the future with open source software.

Bill Gatliff provides consulting services for companies developing embedded systems using free software tools and techniques. He is the author of the “Embedding with GNU” series in Embedded Systems Programming magazine and the creator of the gdbstubs library, a free collection of embeddable stubs for the GNU debugger.

John Fogelin, a long-time proponent of Open Source, was the sixth employee at Wind River, a leading provider of commercially distributed embedded software. He is the original architect of the VxWorks' wind microkernel, and now oversees research and development of the company's core platform products. Before joining Wind River in 1987, Fogelin designed hardware for embedded applications used in devices ranging from biomedical equipment to arcade games.

Steven Stolper is a system software manager at Silicon Spice, a technology-based start-up company. Prior to joining Silicon Spice, he developed embedded IP-over-satellite networks. The victim of far too many “Star Trek” episodes, Stolper designed “flight software” for NASA planetary spacecraft including the Mars Pathfinder Lander and Galileo Orbiter.

 
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