Open-source auto-grade Linux is the future

By Michael ODonnell Manager Core Technologies Marketing Metrowerks Corp. E-mail: michael.odonnell @freescale.com

The business and technology benefits of embedded Linux offer compelling incentives for designers of next-generation telematics equipment. Until recently, embedded Linux technology lacked the determinism, boot-time performance and power-management capabilities to be viable for the telematics market. Today, automotive-grade Linux is a requirement for the automotive electronics of the future. Telematics is an umbrella term that has come to represent many vehicle and driver information systems and services. Automated emergency call and location flagginge.g. the so-called e911 serviceis one key element, but following close behind are remote vehicle-security and -tracking systems, route guidance, realtime traffic information, dedicated mobile messaging and a host of concierge services, including automated hotel and restaurant reservations, as well as booking and payment for parking spaces. In the near future, drivers can expect ondemand A/V downloads (of the kind available to PCs and cellphones) to be offered. Furthermore, automakers are increasingly interested to move into remote diagnostic and repair services in a bid to improve both vehicle reliability and bottom-line profitability. Currently, telematics services operate via a dedicated in-vehicle piece of hardware, known generically as the black box. The black box typically combines a GPS receiver with a hardwired antenna, central microprocessor and telecom board geared to the prevailing external cellular infrastructure. Technologies are now evolving that will require later-generation GPS receivers and com-

munications boards to allow for upcoming developments in satellite location (Europe will get its own satellite network in 2009) and in telecoms (updates to 3G cellular networks are already occurring and wider adoption of 802.11 Wi-Fi and satellite communications are on the way). All these improvements mean that, under the present model, complete blackbox changes or updates will be commonplace. The issue of local market preferences is increasingly important as North American drivers have begun subscribing to national satellite-radio systems,

tegrators, not least because single-sourcing for in-vehicle hardware systems is almost unknown. A typical scenario is Jaguars driver information system, which combines a touchscreen by Mitsubishi with a Motorola hands-free telephone system integrated with Gentex rear-view mirror-mounted microphone, Clarion navigation, Visteon voice activation and Harman-Kardon audio. Systems designers have thus far integrated these disparate products on a model-by-model basis, which is an acceptable development practice as long as complex systems remain within the

Telematic apps Automotive-grade Linux enhancements

Linux apps

BSP
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MPC5200

Automotive-grade Linux is key to automotive electronics of the future.

while Europeans favor digital audio broadcast systems. Both these systems, although each with totally different features, still need to be integrated with other elements of the driver information system that form the primar y interface to the telematics system. Since such changes imply a heavy cost, a widespread move toward embedding various elements into the core vehicle electrical architecture is perceived as a more effective solution, as individual components can be quickly substituted, rather than replacing a composite cluster of components. These regional requirements and the rapid technical evolution of telematics services place a substantial load on the shoulders of systems designers and in-

realm of high-end vehicles, where big development budgets and low build numbers permit such an approach. As telematics technology cascades down to lower-margin, higher-volume vehicles, however, the watershed point is reached when these designers can use a common hardware and software platform, speeding up integration and creating architectures for rapid deployment. The future of in-vehicle systems relies on a platform on which hardware and software from the most suitable sources can be built up at minimum development cost to provide maximum benefit to the drivers who purchase their products. In addition to the basic business logic of economies of scale and f lexibility of design for

these platforms, add the stringent safety requirements laid down in national and international regulations. Using the underlying platform approach permits faster test turns and the modular building blocks that are key to reuse. Logically, applications that use a common operating platform (a combination of hardware and base software) at all levels will be the most effective. Delphi declared several years ago that it was in favor of a common, open computing platform. This followed Delphis 2000 declaration that it was joining forces with Ericsson to develop a range of what it describes as plug-andplay telematics and driver-information services. The model publicized by Delphi in media advisories at the time indicated the peculiar system requirements for in-vehicle telematics and multimedia systems. The modular system was based on an open platform and requires hardware picked and mixed from a range of elements: Microprocessor and companion IC, 200-500MIPS; 128MB SDRAM and 128MB flash; Electromagnetic compatibility; Algorithm-processing capability; Display capability (quarter-VGA to VGA+); Computer-generated graphics; ATAPI for CD-ROM and DVD; MPEG interface; Power-down modes I2C, I2S, RS-232, IrDA, CAN, J1708, MML, PCMCIA, PCI, USB, AC97, SPI and others. Add to this list a range of software functions that include Java compatibility, a POSIXcompliant RTOS, navigation, speech or voice processing, video processing and communications with in-vehicle data buses. To ensure vehicle systems capability and optimization of power consumption and dissipation, each module can be

powered on and off under software control. The system has been designed to be fully scalable to provide the required level of determinism; the varying feature levels range by range or model by model can thus be accommodated without customizing the core platform. Delphi states, the POSIX requirement is very key to the overall design strategy of the Open Computing Platform. Reviewing the published requirements from suppliers and OEMs alike, the theme of common technology coupled with automotive-grade requirements continues to be present. Open source Looking more carefully at the requirements and the cycle of innovation required to keep pace in the electronics market, open-source software is a natural choice for automakers. The critical characteristics of scalable architecture and quick technology transfer create an opportunity for broad adoption of Linux as a platform OS. Linux provides the requisite foundation on which opensource, scalable in-vehicle architectures can be built. The inherent stability of Linux as an OS will be underpinning all developments. The move into a process-based development method requires a number of requirements existing in the Linux platform. Linux must be able to accommodate the driver expectation of a fast boot from reset and fast reaction to invehicle information from the CAN, serial or MOST buses. Due to its process model, Linux is capable of dealing with local faults without causing a wholesale system crash, and of recovering from those faults cleanly. Thanks to its widespread availability, there is no bar on the development of compatible hardware and software from external sourcesi.e. both systems integration and cost control become predictable when compared to other development models. Linux enables open-standard OSes such as POSIX, the Portable Operating System Interface developed by IEEE and currently issued in a second-tier form IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition. The stability of Linux is rooted in its core architecture applications are segregated

from each other and from the core Linux kernel. This process of isolation ensures that system tasks cannot be corrupted by normal users and is enforced by the hardware that normally runs the Linux OS. This hardwarespecifically, the memor y management unit (MMU)is readily available on many embedded processors today and provides a virtual address range in which the kernel can reside. This virtual address range is mapped onto physical memory and monitored by the MMU to ensure that accesses into and out of the range is correctly handled. When an access is out of range, an exception is sent to the OS and is handled, thus preventing user code from corrupting other areas of physical memory. The Linux OS also uses the MMU to segment the user processes from each other and, using services available to the user, can even provide a segmented device driver, making it easy to update at runtime and keeping critical device drivers from corrupting other system and application services. This means that system tasks are isolated from user tasks, rendering the former immune to the problems of the latter. Its also possible that they can be configured in such a way that they self-repair and reboot automatically. Car drivers expect consistent reliability; opensource hardware and software can provide this level of service. The footprint of the Linux kernel is much larger than that of a typical RTOSit typically requires 600KB to 1.2MB. But Linux can be customized within that range to provide a wide array of services and capabilities, making it suitable for telematics applications. Accompanying the broad kernel services are components such as communications stacks and GUIsa display screen is almost invariably used as the centerpiece of the driver interfacethat can require anything from one to several megabytes of memory. Linuxs modular architecture, combined with embedded-specific utilities such as BusyBox (an embedded application toolkit combining many of the standard Unix utilities into one executable) ensure a best fit capability, while ensuring that system micromanagement costs remain manageable. Given that vehicles in dif-

ferent size classes will likely have varying levels of original equipment and retrofit hardware, such core flexibility is essential to automakers. Device drivers Another key aspect of Linux that makes it suitable for telematics and driver interface applications is its ability to load device drivers on demand. This is especially useful when, for example, a CD-ROM, DVD or hard drive is built into a vehicle, but is used only sporadically. When that piece of hardware is required, the device driver will be loaded in a few milliseconds and will automatically be unloaded again when that device is no longer needed by the system. The on-demand capability ensures optimum operating speeds from the Linux platform at all times. A Linux system already has good real-time response for a broad range of products, but it can be further tuned to suit applications within the telematics and driver-interface arena. These optimizations are typically focused on maximizing the performance of the underlying hardware for the Linux OS and they center on two similar capabilities: a preemptive kernel capability and a low-latency patch. These can be used either separately or in combination. The modifications to the boot loader provide the fast boot-up and rapid system-feature load and unload that most automotive software engineers expect. In addition to decreasing the response time of the Linux OS to normal operating conditions, recently introduced technology now permits using the Linux OS in environments requiring communications bus response times of less than 60ms and overall boot requirements in the range of hundreds of milliseconds. Power conservation Linux also provides a means of solving another conundrum facing automakersconservation. With the electrical/electronic content of cars expected to reach as much as 40 percent of the value of vehicles in the near future, it was expected that moving to a 42V system would be inevitable because it would provide the anticipated 8kW/h of powerconsiderably more than

the existing 2-3KW/h provided by todays standard 12V (really 14.2V) battery systems. Considerable resistance was mustered, not least by manufacturers of vehicle subsystems (primarily lighting, batteries, instrumentation and driver-information systems) that had made considerable investment in the existing 14.2V architecture. This unexpected resistance forced automakers to reconsider their 42V position. What is now emerging is an ability to stay within the power-generation confines of todays 14.2V systems, often by moving to a model of operation that allows electronic-management systems to drop into a totally passive mode, switching back on instantly when they are required and then returning to a dormant state. This, paired with a move toward processor sharing, can be enough to maintain absolute efficiency in terms of both power consumption and systems operation. But without an open, stable, deterministic core OS, this will prove difficult to achieve, particularly in the harsh environment of an automobile. The technical merits of Linux are part of its strength when using it as a basis for the overall platform. In addition, the broad community of developers contributing to the overall code base moves the technology forward quickly. Due to the licensing model, there are many sources for technical support and ongoing development. Semiconductor and board manufacturers are investing heavily in Linux technology for silicon validation and reference platform technology enhancements. While these merits are strong, there are also perceived limitations due to the licensing model of the kernel and drivers. These perceptions hamper automakers widespread adoption of open-source systems because they fear they may fall foul of intellectual property rightseither their own or another developers. However, for applications created to run on the Linux OS, theres little ambiguity between what is and isnt protectable IP. Theres also a concern that too few major systems providers and integrators are able to provide technology road maps that lay out the time scale and direction of future developments. As

vendors provide a reliable and dependable operating platformthe Linux OSwith the technical capabilities required by the automotive market, customers will demand solutions to those concerns. Most issues will be addressed with a combination of automotive-grade software development processes and procedures, clear understanding of the architecture requirements for inclusion of application code into the overall system, and the contin-

ued supply chain management of the key silicon and hardware vendors in the space. Not if, but when Linux in this market continues to follow the standard automotive technology adoption curve. Its not a matter of if, but when it will be broadly adopted. Market pressures continue to mount as semiconductor manufacturers are increasingly using Linux for presilicon evaluation and performance

testing. Combine this process with the progression of the silicon designers increasing understatement of the importance of software architecture on the salability of their chips and their burgeoning deployment of optimized Linux chipand board-support packages to showcase the key features of their devices, and the confluence of market and technical conditions continue to point toward the success of Linux in this space. A move to

open-source provision of components is an ever increasing imperative. Automotive-grade Linux is the key to that change and component and software providers also have their part to play by ensuring that a road map of developments is made available to automakers, allowing them to move forward in their mutual desire to develop an industrystandard hardware and software platform.
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