More notes from Conference call, re: Automotive Market/OSEK/3Soft Strategic Investment
Others on this thread have already been posted some of this information. My intention is to build upon their posts.
Ron Abelmann said: The automotive market today, is not a high volume market for Wind River. Its still in its infancy but there is tremendous potential.
The automotive market generally has tended to be much slower on the uptake of high tech embedded electronic technology. Most of the work over the past 2-3 years seems to have been done in Europe (specifically Germany). About 2-3 years ago, Wind River decided to focus their automotive initiative in Europe and then let the strategy build out from what seems to be a very fertile technology ground.
There is a major standard developing in Europe for embedded applications in the automobile. The standard "OSEK" is an operating system kernal initiative which is applicable all the way from the tightest drivetrain applications to in-cabin comfort electronics. The OSEK standard, starting from Europa, and being followed closely by Japan, may eventually make its way to the US auto industry. (my note: pending Daimler Benz/Chrysler merger)
In FY99Q1, Wind River made a $1 million strategic investment in a German software company, 3Soft "Dreisoft". WIND has had a very good consulting relationship with 3Soft over the past 3-4 years. An arm of 3Soft is focused on the automotive market.
In this relationship, 3Soft is in the process of porting out the Tornado environment around the OSEK operating system on a specific chip. There is a collaborative engineering program where the operating system will be applied to 6 of the top chips sold into the automotive market. In addition, 3Soft will be integrating related tools (case tools, emulation tools) that are relevant for automotive development.
Included in the relationship, Wind River also has the worldwide distribution and support rights for Wind River's Tornado product line on the OSEK kernal. Part of this package is to introduce 3Soft to the customer and essentially for 3Soft to continue their consulting services and help customers complete the implementation.
Wind River is getting the right technology and the right support infrastructure on the playing board so the Wind River can continue to execute well and succeed in this market.
Additional automotive info:
Ron Abelmann said that he learned last week, that Wind River has a significant design win at GM for a drivetrain control application.
He also mentioned that Wind River has a number of design wins that get into the automobile cabin. He is not allowed to disclose the specific details at this time but, they will be very high volume.
Frank
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