Mentor Embedded Linux (MEL) - High-end Runtime
Open Source Software (OSS) is affecting all aspects of product development for OEMs in many industry segments including automotive, consumer, industrial, financial, medical and aerospace/defence. Some well established OSS projects like Linux and Embedded Linux are now accepted by engineers & management across these industries, are very well supported by large corporations and have 1000s of contributors working to add new features to the code.
Linux Kernel LOC Growth to V4.9
Nothing this valuable comes for free however. The Linux kernel itself is big (latest V4.9 kernel has @ 22M lines of code) and that does not include the rich Linux application packages ecosystem.
Linux Kernel Version Map
Embedded Linux is a juggernaut that continues to grow and change so it's not a simple decision to put embedded Linux into your products.
RTS can help you understand what is at stake by moving into the world of embedded Linux.
The Yocto Project is another open source collaboration project that provides templates, tools and methods to help you create custom Linux-based systems for embedded products regardless of the hardware architecture. It was founded in 2010 as a collaboration among many hardware manufacturers, open-source operating systems vendors, and electronics companies to bring some order to the chaos of embedded Linux development. The Yocto Project provides an open source development environment targeting the ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and x86 architectures for a variety of platforms. You can use components from the Yocto Project to design, develop, build, debug, simulate, and test the complete software stack using Linux, the X Window System, GTK+ frameworks, and Qt frameworks. Yocto makes it easier to configure an embedded Linux build but comes with it's own complexities that users have to learn and keep up with.
Secure OS Focus
If device security is a priority for your products, MEL has a plethora of security options which can be tailored to your specific device requirements.
Contact RTS Software for more details on MEL secure OS options.
Integration Services
Embedded Linux is really about customization services. If you want to use embedded Linux in your product portfolio you should consider:
- using a commercially produced and supported distribution such as Mentor® Embedded Linux® (MEL),
- engaging with a system integrator like Mentor Graphics who can integrate MEL with your custom hardware and tune and optimize MEL to meet your requirements.
Integration work can be done using technical expertise based in North America or in off-shore locations if cost is an important factor.
Value Provided by MEL
- Board Support Packages available for popular reference designsfrom major semiconductor vendors,
- Focus on the needs of customers looking for a Secure OS,
- Commercial-grade QA: Mentor puts each MEL release through a rigorous QA test cycle using commercial quality test suites so you can be assured of the highest quality levels,
- Commercial grade support: Mentor provides commercial technical support services to your engineers in case of problems. You can let your customers know you have commercial grade support for the software platform embedded in your products,
- Long-term support (LTS) contracts provide extended support periods up to 10 years for a specific kernel configuration,
- Common Security Vulnerability & Exposure monitoring and notification. The Mentor CVE team meets daily to review US-Cert and identify vulnerabilities and push critical patches to customers proactively,
- Regular new releases incorporating the latest Embedded Linux kernel & Yocto enhancements,
- Provides all your OS & development tools needs in a single distribution.
Value Provided by Mentor Integration Services
- All embedded Linux users require customization of the reference distribution for their custom hardware platforms and application. Customization work includes custom board support packages (BSPs), MEL package customization, security add-ons like SE-Linux and SMACK, real-time extensions to the kernel and boot-time optimization work,
- if required, long-term support can be provided for customized platforms.
Think of Mentor as your trusted software platform system integrator so that you can focus on your core business competency and value-add.
Contact RTS Software sales for more details: 1 978 831-0991
Mentor Embedded Linux DS.pdf
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