MontaVista Software announced a new version of its Eclipse-based integrated development environment (IDE) for embedded Linux. DevRocket 6.1 has been upgraded to better support the MontaVista Linux 6 commercial embedded Linux development platform, adding tight integration and a graphical interface to the new MontaVista Integration Platform build platform, plus enhanced analysis and debugging tools, says MontaVista.

DevRocket debuted with the release of MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 3.1 ("Pro") back in 2003. With the release of last September's MontaVista Linux 6, DevRocket was upgraded to version 6.0, offering updated tools for debugging, development, and system profiling, including C/C++ compilers, run-time libraries, and a source- and assembly-level debugger. Other features were said to include performance monitoring tools for profiling, memory leak detection, memory usage analysis and system, and application level tracing.

DevRocket 6.1 has been enhanced to support the move to the "source based development model" introduced in MontaVista Linux 6, says MontaVista.

A major departure for the decade-old Linux development framework, MontaVista Linux 6 offers a new build engine (MontaVista Integration Platform) and content server (MontaVista Zone), and has been recast in the form of specific Market Specific Distributions (MSDs) tailored for specific architectures, processors, and targeted usage scenarios. For example, last month MontaVista added an MSD for ARM Cortex-A9 processors.

Exposing MontaVista's open source build engine

With the help of DevRocket's graphical user interface (GUI), version 6.1 of the IDE exposes the download and build functionality of the MontaVista Integration Platform, previously available only via the command line, says MontaVista. DevRocket is said to provide more accessible tools to browse, customize, and build MSDs on the build platform.

The IDE is said to offer easier configuration of file-systems, mount points, and other aspects of the system image, while enabling developers to integrate application code directly into the system image build. As a result, they can create multiple, reproducible build configurations, or perform incremental builds, says the company.

Built on open source technology, the MontaVista Integration Platform allows developers to customize their Linux distributions while maintaining control over the build process, says MontaVista. Developers can fetch and integrate code from other team members, outside vendors, or the broader open source community, says the company.

A few days after being acquired by Cavium Networks last December, MontaVista announced a partnership with CriticalBlue to integrate the latter's embedded multi-core analysis Eclipse plug-in into DevRocket. The CriticalBlue Prism plug-in enables MontaVista Linux customers to run simulations to analyze and tune the behavior of their code on multicore processors, said MontaVista.

Stated Nick Pollitt, Senior Product Manager, MontaVista Software, "As the complexity of embedded Linux devices increases and the number of sources for open source software grow, DevRocket provides developers the flexibility and control they require to deliver innovative new products that are uniquely tailored to their target market."

Availability

DevRocket 6.1 appears to be available now. More information on DevRocket may be found here.

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