The ELC initiative for a unified open platform for embedded Linux (the ELC Platform Specification) is a watershed event for the embedded industry. One of the most tantalizing promises of Linux for this highly fragmented market is the possibility of a single, open, multi-vendor standard platform for embedded software.

The embedded markets have never had the equivalent of a software platform like DOS or Windows around which a software industry could grow. Embedded developers have had to develop most of their software from scratch, with far fewer choices of tools and middleware to build upon than their mainstream counterparts, and there has been much effort expended reinventing the wheel for each project.

The POSIX effort of a decade ago, which included real-time extensions to the UNIX APIs and the definition of POSIX real-time profiles, was aimed at this holy grail of an open real-time/embedded platform. The POSIX APIs have gained popularity in the embedded community, and have played a useful role for developers who wanted to develop portable software. However, they have failed to achieve the hoped for widespread traction in the embedded markets that would establish POSIX as a leading “platform”.

Why do we believe that the ELC initiative will succeed where the POSIX effort failed?. The UNIX wars which resulted in a fracturing of UNIX into multiple flavors severely undercut the POSIX momentum in the embedded and real-time market. Furthermore, the resource requirements for UNIX or POSIX style operating systems limited its applicability to higher end applications at a time when the silicon costs of memory management units (MMUs) and memory were a significant constraint for high volume, cost sensitive embedded products.

Now, there is a real opportunity for Linux to fulfill the promise of UNIX and POSIX. Linux is already available from many vendors, and since all the different versions start with the same kernel, there is a high degree of compatibility and interoperability between different embedded Linux distributions. At the same time, Moore?s law has largely eliminated the resource constraint issue. In fact, with the falling prices and increasing power of system-on-chip (SOC) devices and memory, and the growing software complexity of embedded applications, a Linux style of operating system with its process model is an excellent fit for today's high volume embedded devices compared to the legacy flat address space real-time operating systems that can work with MMU-less CPUs.

The ELC Platform Specification initiative has a sizeable organization behind it whose 125 members represent a strong shared interest in the success of embedded Linux. In fact, the companies represented on the ELC board of directors, which are involved in the initial steps of launching the platform specification process, include four of the leading embedded Linux suppliers: LynuxWorks, Red Hat, Lineo, and MontaVista, as well as IBM which is a supplier of embedded middleware for pervasive computing devices. I am very optimistic that this specification will be supported by all major suppliers of embedded Linux, as well as by software vendors and users.

This initiative should help to counter the campaign of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) that is being unleashed against embedded Linux by competitors who feel threatened by Linux. It is also designed to forestall the very real threat of divergence between the different embedded Linux distributions and to address the concerns of software vendors and embedded developers. For Linux to establish its potential position as the leading common software platform for embedded systems, developers of embedded middleware or software products need the assurance that a single version of their software will execute on any embedded Linux distribution that complies with the ELC Platform Specification, without requiring separate porting and validation for each distribution.

Test suites to validate compliance, along with a certification and branding program will be key to the success of the initiative. Recognizing the important role of the open source community, as well as commercial product vendors, the test suites themselves are planned as an open source project and would be available for self test in addition to the certification programs.

One of the benefits of a formal interface specification is that it allows multiple interoperable implementations which may be optimized in different ways. This provides more choices for users, and helps to grow the overall market. The Internet is an excellent example where open specifications for TCP/IP, HTTP, and HTML protocols among others have resulted in several open source as well as commercial products that have been key to the growth of the Internet. The ELC Platform Specification opens up similar opportunities for the embedded markets, where multiple interoperable systems compliant with the specification will help to expand the market for embedded software products that support the platform. LynuxWorks, for example, has announced its intention to make both its open source BlueCat Linux operating system, as well as its commercial real-time operating system (RTOS), LynxOS, compliant with the ELC Platform Specification.

Linux is already proving to be a disruptive technology that is transforming the embedded landscape. An exciting result of this ELC initiative would be a thriving ecosystem of open source and commercial Linux compatible software products for embedded developers.

 
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