Web resource aids sourcing of support packages

Wind River has unveiled what it reckons is the most comprehensive embedded industry online board support package (BSP) resource centre.

Wind River has unveiled what it reckons is the most comprehensive embedded industry online board support package (BSP) resource centre.

The interactive website offers detailed BSP technical specifications, online discussions and download capabilities - serving as the definitive crossreference of available hardware that integrates with Wind River platforms and operating systems.

Detailed hardware and software integration information, which might take weeks for embedded developers to research, is now available to Wind River customers in just a few clicks.

A BSP provides the collection of start-up code, device drivers, and debugging features packaged as a standardised interface between hardware and an embedded operating system.

Previously, developers embarking on a new product design spent valuable time researching for compatible hardware through a variety of mechanisms, including an array of sites with varying amounts of information scattered across the Internet.

Today, with Wind River's new BSP website, the hidden cost of the time lost searching for BSPs, which contributes to the fact that 58% of products are late to market, is dramatically reduced.

By providing a single, comprehensive repository of BSPs for COTS/reference/evaluation hardware that integrates with all Wind River platforms and operating systems, Wind River's new BSP site provides embedded developers with a significant technical and time saving advantage.

Detailed product specifications available on the BSP site are maintained directly by Wind River's silicon and hardware partners, so customers also benefit from the most up-to-date BSP technical specifications, reducing development cycles and project risks.

"The BSP resource and community centre was specifically designed to connect our ecosystem of hardware partners with our customers, making it easy for them to do business with Wind River and each other", said Caroline Yao, Director of Partner Solutions for Wind River.

"Today, this resource further aligns Wind River and its partners with our customers' development requirements and delivers on our value to provide our software on a large variety of integrated hardware platforms, enabling joint customers to deploy their end products faster while reducing risk".

The Wind River BSP site is continuously maintained and updated by Wind River and Wind River's silicon and hardware manufacturer partners.

The site can be sorted and searched by vertical market, architecture and hardware manufacturer, providing easy access to locate hardware that best fits specific project requirements.

Up-to-date information available to Wind River customers includes: platform integration details, tested run-time libraries, partner certification levels, technical features and more.

Additional information is available through a BSP support community and device driver discussion group, which offers direct interaction between developers, participating partners and Wind River.

The BSP homepage is located on the Wind River website.

More in-depth technical specifications linked to each BSP is available as an added feature to Wind River's customers as part of the company's online customer support.

"We are pleased that Wind River has taken the initiative to centralise BSP information into a single resource for its partners and customers", said Paul Rosenfeld, CTO for Ampro Computers.

"Not only has the BSP homepage made it easy to enter and update information about our PowerPC, MIPS and Pentium BSPs, but it provides a very efficient way for us to communicate the unique features of our COTS boards and BSPs to mil-aero, medical and industrial control customers".

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