MontaVista Software

Infobox_Company
company_
company_name = MontaVista Software, Inc.
company_type = Privately held company
foundation = flagicon|U.S. Menlo Park, California (September 7 1998) [ [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/18/linux_mobile_real_time/ MontaVista claims realtime support for Linux mobile] ]
founder = Jim Ready
location_city = flagicon|U.S. Santa Clara, California
location_country = USA
area_served = Worldwide
key_people = Rusty Harris
(CEO)
Jim Ready
(CTO)
industry = Internet, Computer software
products = "MontaVista Linux"·"Mobilinux"·"DevRocket"
num_employees = Over 250 [ [http://www.mvista.com/company.php MontaVista company profile] ] (June 20 2008)
homepage = [http://www.mvista.com/ MVista.com]

MontaVista Software is a software developer that develops embedded Linux system software, development tools, and related software. Its products are targeted at other corporations developing embedded systems such as automotive electronics, communications equipment, mobile phones, and other electronics devices and infrastructure.

MontaVista is based in Santa Clara, California and was founded in 1999 by James "Jim" Ready (previously at Mentor Graphics and creator of VRTX) and others.

Products

MontaVista Linux

"MontaVista Linux" (formerly known as "Hard Hat Linux") is a Linux distribution that has been enhanced to become a full fledged real-time operating system. The work on real-time performance has since continued to a point where MontaVista claims to support hard real-time tasks on embedded Linux as of MontaVista Linux 4.0, with response times as fast as other real-time operating systems. [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6395401765.html MontaVista touts native hard real-time Linux ] ]

MontaVista sells "subscriptions," which consist of software, documentation, and technical support. The software includes a Linux kernel and toolchain aimed at a specific hardware configuration, collectively called a Linux Support Package, or LSP, and other integrated tools including the Eclipse-based DevRocket IDE. [http://www.mvista.com/product_detail_devrocket.php MontaVista official DevRocket page] ] The distribution is available in three editions, each aimed at different market segments: Professional Edition, Carrier Grade Edition, and Mobilinux. [ [http://www.mvista.com/products_services.php MontaVista official Products page] ] The MontaVista Linux toolkit includes specific code libraries to easily migrate from old designs using the Wind River Systems' VxWorks and the pSOS operating systems.

MontaVista Professional Edition

MontaVista Professional Edition (Pro) is targeted at general embedded Linux developers who want all the benefits of an open source development platform (open source, Linux, easily accessible software, etc) as well as additional MontaVista benefits including higher quality (fewer bugs), integration with open source tools for a particular hardware architecture, and support. Pro is targeted at intelligent device markets, including networking and communications, instrumentation and control, aerospace and defense, SOHO devices, and medical electronics. [ [http://www.mvista.com/product_detail_pro.php MontaVista official Professional Edition details page] ]

MontaVista Carrier Grade Edition

MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition (CGE) is a commercial-grade Linux development platform for developers working with RAS (reliability, availability, and serviceability) managed hardware (HPI, IPMI) or custom hardware, who require long-term support and high availability. [ [http://www.mvista.com/product_detail_cge.php MontaVista official Carrier-Grade Edition details page] ]

MontaVista Mobilinux

MontaVista Mobilinux is targeted at wireless handsets and other mobile devices such as GPS devices, portable medical devices, and wireless POS terminals. Mobilinux's key features include dynamic power management, real-time performance, fast start-up, and small footprint. [http://www.mvista.com/product_detail_mob.php MontaVista official Mobilinux details page] ]

MontaVista DevRocket

"MontaVista DevRocket" is a set of Eclipse plug-ins for facilitating application and system development with MontaVista Linux. DevRocket integrated development environment runs on Linux, Solaris and Windows. It utilizes the Eclipse C++ Development Toolkit (CDT). Starting with DevRocket 5.0, users can add MontaVista's plug-ins into an existing Eclipse installation, or install Eclipse with the plugins already loaded.

DevRocket is available in two varieties: a Platform Developer Kit (PDK) and Application Developer Kit (ADK). The Platform Developer Kit includes the ability to communicate with a target (RSE, SSH), create and manage file systems, debugging (kgdb), and performance tuning (memory leak, memory usage, system profiling). The application developer kit includes a virtual target for developing applications earlier in the development cycle, one-click edit/compile/debug, and performance tuning. [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3830420826.html MontaVista's embedded Linux app dev tools go "all-plugin" ] ]

Open-Source Contributions

MontaVista has a history of being a major contributor to the Linux kernel and the open-source community. From the beginning, Jim Ready said he wanted to make it "100% Pure Linux" under the GPL [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9093728800.html An interview with MontaVista Founder Jim Ready ] ] . The core changes to make MontaVista Linux into a real-time operating system were made by Nigel Gamble and later updated by Robert Love. [ [http://lwn.net/2001/0830/a/preempt.php3 Updated Linux kernel preemption patches ] ] Robert Love submitted the changes to the Linux kernel in 2001. The Linux 2.6 stable kernel series is the first to include similar features, such as priority-based preemption. As of 2008, MontaVista had contributed 1.2% of the Linux kernel, making it the 9th-largest corporate contributor to the Linux kernel, according to a survey by the Linux Foundation. [ [https://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment.php Linux Kernel Development (April 2008) ] ]

MontaVista has strong connections with the development of Linux under the PowerPC architecture, and hosts a development Linux kernel source tree on http://source.mvista.com/.

MontaVista has also spun-off independent open-source projects based on a number of its features, including dynamic power management, high-resolution POSIX timers, the pramfs file system [ [http://www.linux.com/articles/32573 Linux.com :: MontaVista Contributes to Open Source for CE Linux ] ] , and the openais implementation of the SA Forum's Application Interface Specification. [ [http://openais.org/doku.php?id=about About OpenAIS] ]

Vision Conference

In 2007, MontaVista hosted a conference on the subject of embedded Linux, called Vision. The conference included a keynote speech by Andrew Morton and drew roughly 400 attendees.

The 2008 Vision Summit was held at the Palace_Hotel,_San_Francisco. Speakers included MontaVista CEO Rusty Harris, Peter Kronowitt, an Intel software strategist, Freescale CTO Lisa Su, MontaVista CTO James Ready, OLPC kernel developer Deepak Saxena, and LWN.net Founder Jonathan Corbet [http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7931130318.html] . It was noted that the Vision Summit drew a healthy crowd in comparison to Linux World despite being hosted by a single-vendor [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6152497557.html?kc=rss] .

Distribution

According to MontaVista, the Mobilinux operating system is used in 90 percent of Linux-based smartphones, totaling over 35 million phones and mobile devices. Other versions of MontaVista Linux are used in devices made by a number of partners, including Sony Bravia TVs, NEC routers, and others, especially in Japan. [ [http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS8825826103.html MontaVista beefs up Japan presence ] ]

Mobile phones

Motorola became the first company to use Linux on a mobile phone when it released the Motorola A760 to the Chinese market on February 16, 2003. Motorola chose to use MontaVista Linux in the Motorola A760 and future Linux-based phones, despite the fact that Motorola was a founding member of the competing Symbian OS [ [http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7780859583.html Motorola discloses that its new A760 handset uses MontaVista Linux ] ] . Since then, Motorola has increased focus on its Linux platform and publicly stated that the future platform for all its mid- and high-tier mobile phones will be Linux with Java [cite web|publication=PC Magazine|title=Motorola Outlines Plans for RAZR Successor, The SCPL|year=2006|accessdate=2008-06-27|url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1994344,00.asp] , and other phone manufacturers NEC and Panasonic have developed a common platform based on MontaVista Linux. [ [http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS3110082615.html Linux powers DoCoMo's first 3.5G phone ] ] [ [http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS2402197501.html NEC and Panasonic form mobile phone development joint venture ] ]

See also

* Mobilinux
* Wind River Systems
* LynuxWorks
* Green Hills Software

References

External links

* [http://www.mvista.com MontaVista Sofware official website]
* [http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3524811 MontaVista Claims Real-Time Linux Breakthrough]
* [http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3568471 MontaVista Takes TI's DaVinci]
* [http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4278425311.html DevRocket 5.0 will be available as plugins and standalone]