Wind River has been named the Frost & Sullivan 2007 European Automotive Software Company of the Year. The award is based on criteria including business development, competitive strategy, and leadership in automotive telematics.

Within the automotive market, Wind River markets both VxWorks and Linux operating systems and development tools, to customers that reportedly include Bosch, Siemens, BMW, Daimler, Delphi, Ford, Toyota, and GM. It began focusing heavily on the automotive market in 2005, when it launched an automotive-specific version of VxWorks called Wind River Platform for Automotive Devices (PAD), followed a week later by a Linux-based General Purpose Platform (GPP) product targeting not only automotive, but also industrial automation, and aerospace and defense.

Much of the company's more recent activity in the automotive telematics appears to be related to Linux, however. In Wind River's most recent 3Q earnings announcement, CEO Ken Klein pinpointed Linux-based automotive infotainment as a particular area of fast growth for the company. And, in accepting the award, Wind River's GM of automotive, Chris Ditzen, hailed in particular Wind River's “leadership in Linux-based solutions for the automotive market.”

Wind River's shift toward Linux in the automotive market appeared to begin in earnest in October of 2006, when CMO John Bruggeman said that automotive Linux had reached a tipping point. Soon after, the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Consortium (VII-C), funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, chose Wind River Linux for developing an onboard equipment (OBE) prototype for improving vehicle safety and enabling onboard media and communications. More recently, Wind River partnered with Freescale on a Linux development kit for Freescale's MPC5121e telematics processor.

Stated Niveditha Srinivasan, research associate at Frost & Sullivan, “Proven technical strengths, strong relationships with systems suppliers, and an active, reputed role in the automotive embedded software market make Wind River a deserving recipient.”

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.