Wind River - quick response software

What Intel products do you know? Surely, the first thing everyone will answer: "processors". Then, network administrators will probably remember Ethernet cards and controllers, programmers - “sishnyh” development tools. And SSD, graphics chips, and so on, and so on ... But Intel still does much more. Over the years, Intel has acquired a significant number of software development companies of various kinds of software and hardware components, many of which retained their name and profile of activity. In this post - the story of one of these companies - Wind River , engaged in the creation of real-time software for industrial and embedded systems, including such unusual as the rover Curiosity.

Every year things around us become more and more intellectual. Irons and pans, cars and airplanes - everything will become smarter with terrible force, making it easier for us, people, to live - but only if this intelligence works as it should. And if not? The price for convenience is the “digital addiction” of humanity. Our well-being and security depend on thousands of computers of various sizes, some of which, in principle, are not subject to error. I will give just one example. During the Anglo-Argentine war of 1982 for the Falkland Islands, the English destroyer Sheffield was sunk by Argentine aircraft due to the fact that the computer of the Sea Wolf anti-aircraft missile system, which protected the ship, hung in the process of transferring it to combat mode. To restore the system, a reboot was required, during which the destroyer was torpedoed.


That most unfortunate HMS Sheffield

That is why computer systems embedded in airplanes, ships, and complex production complexes impose particularly stringent requirements. And it is precisely such systems that Wind River has been doing for over 20 years.
Wind River was founded in 1981. Its headquarters is located in Alameda, California - next to the "legend destroyers." Since its inception, the company has been developing real-time software for mobile and embedded systems. Let us distract for a short while to discuss what is it - Real-Time OS (RTOS)?
')

Landing Curiosity on Mars running Wind River VxWorks. The same thing on the video - at the bottom of the post.

Wikipedia provides several definitions of this type of OS. I like the most concise: “An operating system that reacts at predictable times to the unpredictable appearance of external events.” Briefly, the principle of its work can be described as follows. The system has a number of event handlers, most of the time being in a state of inactivity. However, when an event occurs, its handler must perform all necessary actions strictly within a specified period of time; otherwise, the system should fix the error. The “reality” of time forces us to take a different look at such usual OS aspects, such as prioritization and planning and allocation of resources. For example, the RTOS dispatcher has the right to unceremoniously stop any process if an important handler needs to start immediately.


CarPC, created with the participation of Wind River

Now back to the Wind River. The composition of its products includes:

• Wind River Linux Platform - a Linux distribution supported by Wind River, equipped with a real-time kernel, as well as fine-tuned communication interfaces to speed up data exchange;
• The Wind River VxWorks Platform is a runtime environment consisting of our own production VxWorks RTOS and optimized communication interfaces with external data sources or other controllers;
• OS for industrial computers - the above platforms, “sharpened” for a specific embedded object with the necessary operation parameters and sensor interfaces;
• Wind River Workbench - an application development environment for Wind River Linux and VxWorks, including visual design tools, debugging, testing and management;
• And a whole range of products for industrial and embedded systems.

Northrop Grumman X-47B UCAS-D drone with VxWorks on board

In 2009, Wind River was acquired by Intel, but retained its name and command. From this point on, the company realizes its creative plans together with other divisions of Intel. There are enough achievements on this way, here are the main ones.

• It is Wind River that is engaged in Intel development of automotive intelligent systems IVI (in-vehicle infotainment) . Let me remind you that this is a single car computer system that performs information, multimedia and diagnostic functions;
• A separate reason for pride in Wind River: VxWorks platform was chosen by NASA as the OS for the rocket that delivered the Curiosity science lab to Mars. So the success of Curiosity, for which the whole world is now watching, is also part of Intel in the face of Wind River;
• Wind River’s traditional business is onboard computers for civilian and military aircraft. Among the latest implementations - the deckless unmanned aircraft Northrop Grumman X-47B UCAS-D , also flying on VxWorks. And he is, of course, not alone; After all, the company has long-term cooperation with Boeing, Bombardier and other aircraft manufacturers.

The area of ​​interest of Wind River is quite wide. It can be said that the company is represented practically wherever software is required, “reacting at predictable times to unpredictable events.” Here there are telecommunications (intellectual routing, DPI), and medicine (computer diagnostics devices), mobile devices (mobile OS optimization), and much more. And let ordinary citizens not know about the existence of Wind River, this company is one of those that make our world more comfortable and safer. In the end, Intel knows who to buy for him ...

Finally - an impressive clip about landing Curiosity on Mars