Uncle Frank,
Let me start by admitting that I have become a full fledged junkie of this thread, thanks to you, Mike Buckley, LindyBill, Eric L, Tekboy, NY Stew and countless others.
This is by far the most stimulating thread on SI and the quality of posts and lately their frequency, is quite staggering! I thank you all for the wealth of knowledge that I have been able to soak up lurking on this thread and soon I hope to convert my new found wealth of knowledge about Gorilla Investing into a wealth of dollars.
I decided to come out of my lurking mode to nominate a company for this thread's consideration as a gorilla candidate:
WIND RIVER SYSTEMS (WIND)
Even though I am not a techie, I will try my best to present my case in support of WINd.
Wind River Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of real-time operating systems, integrated software development tools and engineering services for embedded applications.
Their VxWorks OS has quietly become the de facto standard for any number of appliances that require an embedded system software. From set-top boxes to automobile braking systems; from Ethernet switches and IP routers to the worldïs most powerful astronomical instrument, they all use WIND's software to run. Wherever 100% reliability is not an option, it is run on WINd's operating system. For instance, on NASA's Pathfinder Mission, WINd River's operating system, VxWorks, controlled the spacecraft and the lander. They sure couldn't trust Microsoft's Windows to get the job done. <g>
Heck, even one of their products is called a Tornado. <g>
A product for which David Shear, an industry analyst for Embedded Systems Research said, "Tornado may well be the most significant change-agent the industry has ever seen."
A recent issue of The Register, a publication that is usually a harbinger of bad news for companies in the high tech world had this to say about Wind River Systems:
And watch out for WindRiver's share price today. As we reported earlier, its real time operating system is getting to be pervasive.
theregister.co.uk
And in a recent article, Time magazine highlighted WINd's ubiquitousness in the new automobiles coming to market:
pathfinder.com
FROM MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1999
Gentlemen, Please Reboot Your Engines
Microsoft and Sun want their software in your car, but little-known Wind River has a head start.
You're driving along at 65 m.p.h. on the Santa Monica Freeway. Suddenly your dashboard starts flashing this message: FATAL ERROR 60438. YOU WILL HAVE TO REBOOT.
Ummm ? what now? Pull out the instruction manual? Call the help center on your cell phone? Where's the reboot button, anyway? Of course, this is just a bad fantasy, but as software makers vie for space on (and behind) your dashboard, "operating system" is taking on a whole new meaning.
This past August, General Motors announced its "Web vehicle," featuring voice-activated access to the Internet right from the driver's seat. To bring the Web vehicle to market next year, GM has turned to Sun Microsystems, maker of the Java programming language and operating environment. Sun CEO Scott McNealy probably shocked a few Detroit executives at a press event when he said he "often refers to the automobile as nothing more than a Java browser with tires."
Despite McNealy's enthusiasm for the automotive market, Sun will be racing behind longtime rival Microsoft, whose Windows CE-based Auto PC replaces your car stereo with a souped-up in-dash computer that plays your CDs, scans for radio stations, reads you all your e-mail, looks up the address of your next appointment and tells you the best route to take to get there. The Auto PC has been out for about a year.
Sun and Microsoft, while well known in the personal-computing and business worlds, are relatively new to the space between your bumpers. Wind River Systems, a lesser-known rival, has been selling its lightweight, powerful operating systems to automakers for years. "The typical car has more than 50 microprocessors in it," explains Jerry Fiddler, chairman and cofounder of Wind River. "They help you make your car more reliable, more fuel-efficient and much safer."
Unlike those in your laptop, these systems need to be extremely reliable, as they operate so many mission-critical functions in your car ? and become more pervasive with each model year. But Wind River isn't stopping at your car's brakes. Fiddler envisions a future in which a Wind River-driven computer in your engine communicates seamlessly with the Wind River-driven computer in your dash. Your car could tell you it's time for an oil change, find the nearest service center, set up an appointment that fits your schedule and give you directions to get there.
Wind River may have already captured the pole position in the race for your dashboard. According to Fiddler, Wind River's software is inside half the car-navigation systems built today.
Whoever ends up developing the systems installed in your car, you can expect to see a growing list of technology options available to new-car buyers. The challenge for Sun, Microsoft and Wind River is to develop software that exhibits the same qualities drivers look for in their car's hardware. You guessed it: reliability and performance. Crashing, after all, isn't an option for auto software.
--MICHAEL SIPPEY
Here is a link to some more fascinating information about WINd:
wrs.com
And finally, some of the very gorillas discussed on this thread, like Intel, Cisco and Qualcomm, use WINd's software and development tools to run their products.
Looking forward to the thread's response...
Regards,
Karim
P.S., I have noticed that Voop, a regular on the WINd thread is a poster here. Hope he will help me answer any of your question(s). |
