• What is a platform?

  A platform is a combination of hardware and software, which constitutes an embedded computer. The ELC Platform specification precisely describes a platform's software requirements (from an application programming interface (API) point of view) that are needed by any distribution of the Linux operating system intended for use on hardware that seeks to be… compliant with the specification.

• What is the ELC announcing? Why do you think it's important?

  The ELC is announcing a landmark global design specification for the construction of embedded products that plan to use the Linux operating system. The specification provides “core” or basic guidelines for software components that are needed in any compliant distribution of the Linux operating system.

  We think the news is important because, in the history embedded computing, the ELCPS is the first OS-unifying specification to achieve sufficient global consensus to be offered as a standard. As such, the ELCPS can be a force for defragmentation.

  Stated another way, the ELCPS can help software developers reuse their code while also helping product developers build feature-rich interoperable devices. From the perspective of a business manager, the ELCPS can drive product pricing lower (thanks to reduced software engineering costs) and cut time-to-market (thanks to reusable code).

• Why a specification and why now?

  The chief purpose of the specification is to provide a certifiable design environment that unifies (defragments) global development efforts and eases the cost and time associated with embedded product development. We did this now because the Linux operating system's progress in the market is at a point where fragmentation will harm it, while unification will help it. In part, we were also motivated by competitive pressure, where fear, uncertainty and doubt work to the disadvantage of the embedded Linux community.

• What are the details of the spec and what are and its value propositions?

  Specification details are described by a white paper located here.

  Comparing Linux with any of the shrink-wrapped commercial proprietary operating systems, the key value of the ELCPS is a guarantee that conformance today means conformance tomorrow. This means preservation of engineering effort when it comes time to add new features to software designed to run on any compliant distribution of the Linux OS. This is achieved through the API-centric specification. Companies get tremendous freedom to move applications among hardware products that employ Linux in any compliant distribution.

  Another value proposition is industry acceptance of the Linux open source model vs. proprietary models. The sheer excellence of Linux code, the impact of excellence on products and the impact of having source code access in order to build differentiated products is unified and amplified by the ELCPS.

  Another value proposition is the potential unification of about half the embedded market that now “rolls it's own” operating systems. Software engineers at hundreds of companies literally start from scratch to write the code of a custom OS for new projects. They do this to avoid becoming economically encumbered by license-restrictive shrink-wrap RTOS vendors who will not open their source code. As noted by market research organizations, the roll your own crowd is increasingly starting projects with the Linux kernel source code, available free at Kernel.org.

  This trend is a special opportunity for the ELC. The ELCPS can unify and accelerate these efforts. The value proposition is that the gray market use of Linux can act as a catapult for Linux market share. We need to bring the projects out into the open as a unified whole. The ELCPS is the value proposition and lubricant to do this.

• From an engineering perspective, what is the ELCPS?

  The ELCPS is an application programming interface (API) specification. It supports source code portability of applications to different compliant distributions of Linux, representing different implementations. This provides assurance to developers of applications and middleware that their products can be recompiled for a large variety of embedded Linux targets. For example, a developer of a messaging application that requires only the functionality contained within the ELCPS will be able to quite easily recompile the application's source code to satisfy any compliant implementation (one that relies only upon APIs given in the ELCPS). Further, the API level specification ensures usefulness of the specification for all potential architectures. Both time and expense are saved in large quantities by this approach.

• How is this different from current practice?

  It is markedly different. Under current embedded industry practice, a software application usually cannot be merely recompiled from source code to satisfy varying implementations. Depending on actual implementations, portions of the source code must be rewritten by engineers in an effort called porting. These efforts take into account both the hardware and software of the application and often require the highest levels of engineering skill. In some cases, the porting effort can be as large a project as the original application. Time and expense are the undesirable handmaidens of this approach.

  Another key difference is the underlying open source code of Linux. Commercial operating system vendors offer proprietary or closed products. If engineers cannot get access to the source code, they encounter difficulty adding desirable features and achieving high performance for their applications and other valuable software efforts such as middleware and development tools. The ELCPS eases these problems by making open source Linux more attractive as the starting point for new projects.

• What is the relationship if any between the ELCPS and the recently announced Sony-Matsushita embedded Linux platform?

  As we understand it, the Sony-Matsushita platform announced in December 2002 is going to be a specialized distribution of the Linux operating system for home entertainment devices. The developers have pledged that it will be placed in the public domain for global benefit and will conform to the General Public License that governs Linux distributions.

  The ELCPS, on the other hand, is not a Linux distribution. It is a platform specification that is distribution-neutral. The ELCPS essentially offers engineering instructions for an application-programming interface (API). The API enables application and middleware developers to certify that their products will work with any Linux distribution that is ELCPS compliant.

• So, the Sony-Matsushita platform will be ELCPS compliant?

  Since the developers have guaranteed GPL compliance, the distribution is certainly capable of ELCPS compliance. The Sony-Matsushita platform was designed and development was underway before the ELCPS was created. Both companies are members of the ELC. Panasonic has actively participated in the creation of the ELCPS. If the first version of the distribution is not compliant, future versions may well be.

• What does the ELC expect the ELCPS to achieve in the market?

  The chief virtue of the ELCPS is the life cycle assurance it offers companies who wish to use Linux in embedded applications. By conforming to the ELCPS, vendors are saying to their customers that the underlying operating system is supported for the long term. Customers at each link in the supply chain will not have to fear that the OS vendor will change the OS and demand new license fees or subscription fees for its use, or force expensive engineering changes for ongoing legacy compatibility.

  Just as other OS industry standards have added to implementor and customer confidence in their markets, the ELCPS hopes to do the same in the embedded market. In short, Linux seeks to be the best OS for a very wide variety of customers, and the ELCPS seeks to offer a history-making vendor-neutral OS platform that eases and accelerates its use.

• What will a Linux distribution company have to do to earn ELCPS compliance?

  To achieve compliance in full, a Linux distributor will be obliged to offer the ELCPS' API as a methodology for developing applications and middleware. Right now, the ELCPS covers core services that must be included in any Linux distribution. This can be achieved by most distributions through reasonable engineering and administrative effort. As the ELCPS evolves to offer API's beyond the core, distributors will have the opportunity to include the new API's in their certification.

  Taken as a whole, compliance will pose neither financial nor technical difficulty.

• How does the ELC plan to enforce compliance?

  Compliance and conformance testing will be voluntary, but achievement will permit vendors to brand and market their products with appropriate logos and statements. The ELC is now writing Conformance Test Policies and, upon ratification, we'll write the actual conformance test suites. It's likely that an independent test laboratory will offer fee-based test to product vendors. Once vendors pass the test, they will be authorized to use our logos and associated statements to help market their products.

• Will a company have to be a member of the ELC to use the ELCPS?

  No. Membership provides a range of related benefits for companies who are serious about the use of Linux in embedded applications. For companies who plan to make embedded Linux a key strategy of their business model, ELC membership allows committee work on the key technologies that may determine success. Such work is governed by a carefully constructed intellectual property agreement for full marketplace protection. So, companies with key technologies that could become API's within the ELCPS may help determine the course of the market through ELC membership.

  Membership in most categories also earns rights to be elected to the ELC's nine-person Board. Board members govern the thrust and direction of the overall consortium. There is potentially a huge amount of prestige associated with governance. Years from now, for example, assuming ELCPS success, current Working Group members will be able to claim authorship of the original standard.

  Finally, the benefits of membership in the marketing arena are being designed to reward members with exclusive logos and statements, plus speaker's bureau rights and journalistic opportunities. Non-members will not enjoy these benefits.

• What is the plan to sanction or legitimize the ELCPS through affiliation with an international standards body?

  A true grass roots effort, the ELCPS appears to be following a development course recognized by most standards bodies, such as ANSI and ISO, as the Ad Hoc method. As such, sanctioning bodies actually prefer to see what develops in terms of marketplace acceptance. This is the usual procedure and it's like genetic pressure or Darwinism. If the ELCPS is able to achieve broad consensus, win new membership for its working group(s) and impact the marketplace supply chain in a positive way, then internationalization through a process-oriented standards group will follow.

• Is the ELC discussing the possibilities with standards bodies?

  Informally, yes. We've spoken with The Open Group, for example, and we've read the rules at ANSI and ISO. Many of our Working Group members have substantial experience with these and other standards organizations.

• Do competing standards covering this area?

  At the API level, there have been a few efforts to establish groups with common interests (such as the [failed] TV Linux Alliance). Since the ELCPS is strictly API-centric, we have no competing agendas relative to existing Linux standards that have been included in the ELCPS by reference.

• Who is paying for this work on standards?

  The ELC and its “sweat equity” volunteers have paid for the work.

• Has Linus Torvalds blessed the ELCPS?

  The ELC would welcome his blessing, of course. Linus has told our working group that his interests begin and end with the actual Linux operating system. The ELCPS is not Linux and therefore we have no expectation of direct interest by Linus.

• Does the ELCPS aid Linux competition vs. competing operating systems?

  Yes. Linux has earned global recognition as a very robust operating system and the ELCPS leverages the excellence. Linux competes feature for feature with other OS's. Linux is a phenomenon. And, it is truly an orphan operating system in the business sense.

  The ELCPS amounts to an effort to establish a foster business parentage for the orphan. As Linux competitors spread fear, uncertainty and doubt about the survivability of Linux and its TCO (total cost of ownership), efforts like the ELCPS unify the market and debunk the notion that Linux has no legacy corporate support committed to its long-term success.

  The ELCPS also enables diversity to enter the OS equation by providing an abstraction layer. If embedded Linux has a “secret weapon,” this is it. Conformance with the abstraction layer (the API) allows Linux distributions to be markedly different from one another, leading to clear product differentiation on behalf of customers with no risk for application developers. Whereas fragmented versions of Linux would force application developers to port their work at great expense, ELCPS compliant versions of Linux will not require multiple ports. The application developer writes code for the standardized API, not the OS per se.

  Apply this notion to any competing proprietary operating system. A company standing behind the OS would have to open their source code to the customer base to even begin to approach Linux' key strength. And, since the ELCPS makes a business model of this strength by providing the API abstraction layer, the underlying OS is fully encouraged to be as excellent as the open source model can achieve in the hands of competing vendors. Anecdotal evidence of Linux excellence is swiftly expected to become hard statistical evidence in the embedded market as it already has in the server and enterprise markets around the globe.

  Since no parallels can be found in other modern business models, the ELC has labeled the ELCPS an historic event. We'd like to observe, however, that a long standing parallel has characterized the world of science ever since technological observation and progress first reared its head in recorded medieval history. Linux creator Linus Torvalds characterized the parallel as “standing on the shoulders of giants.” This method of passing one's discoveries to peers without concern for compensation is the root of open source success.

Copyright © 2003 The Embedded Linux Consortium. All rights reserved. Reproduced by LinuxDevices.com with permission.

 
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