EDN’s 20th annual Innovation Awards Finalists
-- EDN, February 18, 2010
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&& PREVIOUS FINALIST | MAIN | NEXT FINALIST >> Category: Innovator of the Year Finalist: MontaVista Software fast-boot-dashboard-application design team  Alexander Kaliadin is an innovator, as he led the team, which included Nikita Youshchenko and Cedric Hombourger, at MontaVista Software that achieved the ultra-fast one-second boot dashboard application this year. Alexander’s team worked faithfully to achieve this through careful tuning of the entire software stack, starting with the boot loader. The fast-boot solution employs unique concepts such as parallelization of the boot process by utilizing DMA data transfers simultaneously with kernel initialization and starting application execution immediately when kernel initialization is complete. This sample automotive dashboard application, fully operational in one second from cold boot, achieves a level of previously unmatched performance on any embedded Linux. This advancement is paramount, because for industrial automation and other similar applications, fast boot and response time is critical to successful operation. Fast boot primarily addresses safety-critical requirements found in automotive, industrial, or military/aerospace applications to have vital system data available to the user instantly after system is powered. It could be engine check or gear information in a car, temperature and pressure readings for a power plant, or cockpit data in an airplane. In contrast with consumer electronics where suspend/resume are typically used for similar purposes, most industrial or automotive applications cannot be battery-backed because of a very tight power budget or temperature range/weight/size requirements. These same demanding requirements are found not just in industrial automation applications, but automotive, aerospace and military applications as well. As consumers continue to demand faster, smarter, and more efficient devices, operating systems must keep up, and MontaVista’s fast-boot technology facilitates this. Alexander and his team truly made a breakthrough in embedded Linux performance, and continue to make strides in fast-boot technology. It has always been believed that embedded Linux could not perform at this level of speed and efficiency, but innovators at MontaVista, like Alexander’s team, are proving this demanding level of performance quite possible. |
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