Oh, geez, who'd a thought they'd use RMX?! Duh!
Is it still around, though? I haven't heard about it in ages.
"If high royalties are an issue, shouldn't it be possible for WIND to find a cost structure that works for both WIND and its customer, in high volume situations? "
I dunno, but historically it hasn't happened. WIND's biggest challenge is cracking the 75% of firmware projects that don't use a commercial OS. They've bought-up all of the significant competition, but still have a huge untapped market that has been tough to crack.
And, the fact is, there are still a large percentage of firmware projects that just don't need an RTOS. (Though that's changing as, for example, more and more products need high-level services such as IP connectivity, etc.)
As an engineer, I think their best bet would be to reduce the cost of entry. An RTOS is a tough sell to management in most cases. I know that the LAST thing that I want to try to pitch to management is an RTOS. Easier to pitch an ill-conceived in-house OS project. :)
I think the Linux model with a twist would be great. Let engineers have VxWorks for FREE, as long as they are just doing development, with licensing fees when products are actually shipped. Sneak in the back door.
I realize that this might prove problematical on low-volume projects, where I suppose they do have significant revenue. |
