Microsoft and Intel vye to control the wireless car
Published: 5 March, 2009
As this week's Embedded World conference in Germany highlights, wireless is rapidly moving beyond the handset and PC, and becoming included in every flavor of device and media platform. This is luring the major mobile technologies into the embedded world, bringing their battles with them.
Intel is working with Taiwanese foundry TSMC on low power iterations of its Atom processor for embedded applications, and one of the most immediate targets is the in-car wireless system. As Intel takes on Freescale in this segment, the software race is on too, and Microsoft has mounted its latest attempt to get its mobile operating systems, Windows Mobile and Windows CE, into the auto.
Microsoft has repeatedly tried to get WinMo into embedded in-car systems, and this is its latest attempt - the real agenda, many suspect, behind its recent lawsuit against navigation systems maker TomTom, which could, if acquired, be a useful route into the vehicle.
The Windows giant showed off its MS Auto software platform at the Embedded World show, aiming to dominate the future in-vehicle infotainment system, which will be tightly integrated with the phone to support a seamless content experience. To achieve the lightning boot time insisted upon by carmakers, MS Auto boots from flash memory instead of disk. The hardware reference design includes a multimode radio receiver that supports a number of digital transmission technologies. The system is based on an ARM11-based Freescale i.MX35 processor.
Microsoft may have missed its moment - open source and Linux are gaining ground in the in-car sector, as witnessed by a new auto electronics industry alliance announced this week to drive adoption of an open source car infotainment platform, reducing development cost and time. The Genivi Alliance includes carmakers BMW, General Motors and PSA Peugeot Citroen along with Intel and Wind River and some parts suppliers. The new group claims its platform will allow carmakers to deliver new infotainment features quickly by syncing their production schedule with the lifecycle of consumer electronics and mobile phones. Intel, of course, sees Genivi as a fertile ground for Atom, and is already discussing Atom-based applications with BMW. Intel will release its first open source reference implementation of its Linux-based Moblin platform soon, which it will push as a consistent platform for the car entertainment systems market.
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