Boeing 787 would be 'open' too

PUNE, INDIA: As the potential and power of open source spreads, so are its applications.

Interestingly enough, it seems to expand its reach into newer devices like car entertainment dashboards, digital TVs, MP3 players and even Boeing 787.

Yes, the much-touted and awaited luxury dream liner would have about 18 features powered by Vx Works, the flagship product of open source-based device enabler Wind River.

It would mark the use of open source in new dimensions of avionics with a reduction in development time from 12 to six months.

In addition, there would be cell phones coming out with Wind River’s technology while companies in areas like Set Top Boxes, MP3 players and digital TVs are also investing in the new device applications.

Venkatesh Kumaran, country manager of this device software optimization (DSO) major that clocked about $328 million last year, and is woven around kernel OS is confident about bringing Wind River-driven Linux to yet new platforms and devices, specifically with network equipment.

The company has recently unfolded a futuristic platform for the car of the year, and this would be available next quarter.

“We are hopeful of tremendous traction on this platform.”

So far about 350 million units are claimed to have been deployed with some kind of Wind River technology that essentially works as the next-level OEM partner for device manufacturers. The range spans across gaming devices, fighter planes, battle tankers, radars.

The users include names like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Motorola, NASA, Mitsubishi, and electronics vendors like Philips, Siemens, Nortel, and Samsung.

The company contributed about 7300 lines of code to Eclipse, (an open source community for open development platform with extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle) and is also working on developing software frameworks wherein customers can manage Linux devices.

This would make a shift beyond operating system to vertical-specific platforms that are catering to industries like the consumer digital industry, aerospace, defense etc.

“The trend is towards commercial off-the-shelf tools from traditional homegrown operating system tools. Our focus is on reducing the time-to-market and improving productivity of developers,” he said.

Wind River is already doing work in aerospace in the area of integrated modular avionics.

In case of Boeing 787, as already shared by Boeing, an open architecture will be at the heart of the 787's systems, which will be more simplified than today's airplanes and offer increased functionality.

New technologies and processes are in development to help Boeing and its supplier partners achieve new levels of performance at every phase of the program.

The program has signed some top-tier supplier partners and together finalized the airplane's configuration in September 2005 with whom Boeing has been working with since the early detailed design phase of the program connected virtually at 135 sites around the world.

The 787 program opened its final assembly plant in Everett in May 2007.

First flight is anticipated during the fourth quarter of 2008 with certification, delivery and entry into service occurring in the third quarter of 2009, says its site.