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Auto Linux gathers speed
By: Lenny Case
Obstacles in the way of using Linux as an in-vehicle operating
system are being cleared through industry partnerships.
Several vehicle manufacturers and suppliers founded the GENIVI
consortium in March 2009 to develop a standardized automotive
infotainment reference platform [IN-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI)]. The
platform is based on the open operating system Linux, which, apart
from its robustness, permits access to the many different consumer
electronics applications. The aim of this work are shorter development
times, faster product launches and lower development costs for IVIbased
equipment and software. Among the founding members of
GENIVI are BMW, PSA Peugeot Citroën, General Motors, Delphi,
Visteon, Magneti Marelli, Intel and Wind River.
One of the leaders in the field is Swedish automotive electronics
research and development enterprise, Pelagicore. It has developed
a Linux-based infotainment software framework for music, video
and telephony. This is integrated into a single system with COQOS
– an operating system developed by OpenSynergy that is able
to integrate Linux-based infotainment applications with the typical
vehicle functions on the same hardware platform. By combining
resources, OpenSynergy and Pelagicore say they “offer a complete
framework to the automotive industry where only the vehicle
manufacturer’s user interface needs to be assembled.”
Pelagicore’s co-founder, Mikael Söderberg, is chairman of the
Reference System Working Group in the GENIVI alliance due to
Pelagicore’s experience in In-Vehicle Infotainment Reference Design
and expertise in hardware and software (e.g. Linux) development.
Road blocks
While the work of GENIVI ensures the successful development
of the infotainment system for the vehicle, it does not guarantee
their integration into the total vehicle system. The integration into
the automobile demands the systems to meet the automotive
requirements, such as AUTOSAR compatibility.
Other barriers of GENIVI application integration in the vehicle
is the requirement of infotainment systems to start considerably
faster than is currently possible with Linux. For example, the rear
view camera must be available a few seconds from starting.
The integration into the vehicle network, such as CAN, or the
integration of function domains, where their applications require
real-time properties, also represent challenges which cannot easily
be realized with Linux.
OpenSynergy has developed a solution using its core product
COQOS. This software platform contains the µOS, a very small
but real time capable microkernel-based operating system,
running directly on the hardware. Functions of the system required
immediately after the start, that must meet real-time requirements
during operation, or that need to remain separated from the Linux
kernel for other reasons, run directly on the µOS. As hypervisor,
the µOS permits the execution of a Linux kernel, including all
applications, virtualized above the µOS. The entire architecture
“ OpenSynergy and Pelagicore offer a complete framework to the
automotive industry where only the vehicle manufacturer’s user interface
needs to be assembled. Mikael Söderberg (co-founder and CTO of Pelagicore)
”
specified by GENIVI can therefore run above the µOS and in
parallel to time-critical applications.
Virtualization technology enables the partition of different
software systems so that they can be merged into a single CPU
without affecting each other. COQOS is therefore the key for the
integration of infotainment systems in AUTOSAR environments.
AUTOSAR is the interface standard for functions in the automotive
industry, which ensures that they can be reused in the long term
and in a sustained manner.
The COQOS platform is the first of its kind that combines
AUTOSAR with the advantages of virtualization. For example, one
or several securely separated AUTOSAR partitions can run beside,
and safely separated, from a virtualized Linux infotainment system.
COQOS is therefore able to turn the new automotive-capable
Intel Atom processor into the first X86-compatible AUTOSAR
environment through its support for the new X86 architecture.
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