EMF changes tune, hails embedded Linux
Dec. 05, 2007
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS9372729455.html
Embedded Market Forecasters has issued a report claiming that embedded
Linux is just as dependable as other real-time operating systems (RTOSes).
The independently funded report appears to recant EMF's controversial
Microsoft-funded report in 2003 that claimed that embedded Windows OSes
were far faster and cheaper than embedded Linux.
The updated report now claims that projects using embedded Linux have
achieved design parity with commercial RTOSes for most projects, offering
the same level of design outcomes. The Framingham, Mass. researchers also
state that Linux designs are capable of being incorporated within
mission-critical applications that require MILS (Multiple Independent
Levels of Security) or EAL (Evaluation Assurance Level) certification.
The EMF report's positive findings about Linux are limited to commercial
embedded Linux distributions, however. The report says the study found
that 15.9 percent fewer "in-house" Linux development projects met
"pre-design expectation levels," compared to projects using a commercial
embedded Linux or certified RTOS.
Background
EMF's original 2003 research report hit like a bombshell in the Linux
community, at a time when embedded Linux was being hyped at the same
dizzying levels accorded to "Web 2.0" over the last year. EMF claimed that
Windows CE .NET and Windows XP Embedded ran 43 percent faster and at 68
percent lower cost, on average, compared with similar projects using
embedded Linux. The report has now been updated, says EMF "in light of the
many changes which have occurred since 2003 in embedded development
technology."
The 2003 study set off a firestorm of debate, based not only on the
content, but by the Redmond, Wash.-based funding source. (EMF says the new
report was funded solely by its general subscribers.) At the time,
LinuxDevices published some editorials that crowed over the bursting of
the embedded Linux hype bubble, yet also responded by printing several
rebuttals, in which a typical comment was Jerry Epplin's contention that
the report was "flawed on just about every level."
EMF says the new report is based on interviews with more than 1,300
embedded developers in 2006 and 2007 across a broad range of embedded
vertical market applications. (By contrast, the 2003 survey interviewed
only 100 manufacturers and 456 embedded developers.) EMF's new survey
asked for information such as current and anticipated tool usage, design
starts, completions and cancellations, host development and target
platforms, and microprocessors. The analysis was also based on time from
design start to shipment, percent of designs completed behind schedule,
number of months delayed, design complexity, and comparisons to pre-design
expectations.
Stated report author Dr. Jerry Krasner, "This study shows that designing
with an embedded Linux OS can be as dependable as designing with an RTOS.
The availability of general and application-specific tool sets has enabled
designs that are on-time and close to pre-design expectations. However,
these results are specific to commercial embedded Linux and RTOSes, and
were not experienced to the same extent by in-house Linux development
efforts."
Availability
The full report, called "Embedded Linux Total Cost of Development
Analyzed" is available from EMF's web site. Also available on demand are
customized cross-tab reports, according to an EMF spokesperson.
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