“Five months after embedded software powerhouse Wind River
Systems announced it is merging with Integrated Systems, the other
shoe dropped — squarely on ISI’s operating system. …what
everybody had long suspected — that ISI’s pSOS real-time operating
system would fall by the wayside — became policy.”
“[Wind River chairman Jerry] Fiddler saw $1 billion in revenue
as quickly achievable, but he hedged on the company’s commitment to
the Linux market, which competitors have embraced. … Wind River
plans a third quarter release of the next version of the Tornado
environment and VxWorks RTOS. Called Cirrus, it will include a new
Tornado IDE; a next-generation VxWorks with a Linux host, and the
new Protection Domain Technology to cut down on memory-protection
issues that can cut into system uptime.”
“…it is on the Linux front where competitors seem to be really
licking their chops. ‘I’m guessing they feel pretty threatened by
Linux,’ said Steve Verleye, president and CEO of Applied
Microsystems…”
“Greg Rose, a strategic market segment specialist for Lynx
Realtime Systems, Dallas, said Linux is a force to be reckoned
with. Lynx offers customers a two-pronged approach, fielding its
traditional LynxOS for hard-real time systems and BlueCat for
Linux-based designs. Linux is gaining fast in popularity, and ‘when
that freight train hits you, you’re going to have skid marks’ if a
company isn’t prepared with a strategy, Rose said.”