FROM EDN EUROPE: Automate embedded boot code

You can cut as much as 40% of the time you need to write boot code for embedded systems with the VisionWare package from Wind River. It packages an extensive range of drivers in versions that are either dedicated to commonly used hardware or in generic form for modification to suit specific tasks with a graphical interface, tool set, and debugging agent.

"Think a combination of Partition Magic, plus Power-on-self-test, plus an Ethernet-debug agent," says Wind River application specialist Tim Loveless. You follow a conventional firmware-building process using a JTAG interface and working through the hardware of your system, but the process has many automated features and, at the end, you retarget from host to embedded memory and build a target image for use in the product. The basic tool costs $10,000, including all the pre-evaluated software-library modules in source code, and a licence to ship OEM code costs $40,000. There is no per-unit royalty charge.

Wind River Systems, +44 121 628 1888, www.wrs.com.