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MontaVista

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MontaVista Software
IndustryInternet,Software
FoundedMenlo Park, California(September 7, 1998)[1]
FounderJim Ready
Headquarters
San Jose, California
,
United States
Key people
Ravi Gupta (CEO)
ProductsMontaVista Linux

MontaVista DevRocket

CGX

MVShield
OwnerPrivate equity investors
Number of employees
Over 250[2](March 9, 2021)
Websitewww.mvista

MontaVista Softwareis a company that developsembedded Linuxsystem software,development tools, and related software. Its products are made for other corporations developingembedded systemssuch asautomotiveelectronics,communicationsequipment,mobile phones,and other electronic devices and infrastructure.

MontaVista is based inSanta Clara, Californiaand was founded in 1999 by James "Jim" Ready (formerly atMentor Graphicsand creator ofVersatile Real-Time Executive(VRTX)) and others. On November 10, 2009Cavium Networksannounced that it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase MontaVista for $50 million. After Cavium got acquired by Marvell, Montavista operated as an independent entity.[3]

Products[edit]

Linux[edit]

May 12, 2009, MontaVista announced MontaVista Linux 6 (MVL6) comprising Market Specific Distributions, MontaVista Integration Platform, Software Development Kit, MontaVista Zone Content Server, and support and services. There are several differences between MVL6 and prior MontaVista Linux products. The main ones are:

  • Market Specific Distributions (MSD) – Linux operating systems (kernel+userland) optimized for each specific semiconductor vendor's hardware.
  • MontaVista Integration Platform – based onBitBake,analogous tomake,which analyzes a set of directives and then builds a task dependency tree to satisfy a user command. BitBake then executes the defined tasks to completion.
  • MontaVista Zone Content Server – accessed from behind aproxy server,or localweb mirrorfor offline operations, to fetch software and updates. Rather than depending on a mix of publicHTTP,Concurrent Versions System(CVS),Git,andSubversionservers across the Internet, there is one source for each original sourcearchiveandpatch.

MontaVista Linux(formerly namedHard Hat Linux) is aLinux distributionthat has been enhanced to become a fullreal-time operating system.The work on real-time performance has since continued to a point where MontaVista claims to supporthard real-timetasks on embedded Linux as of MontaVista Linux 4.0, with response times as fast as other real-time operating systems.[4]

MontaVista sellssubscriptions,which consist of software,documentation,andtechnical support.The software includes aLinux kernelandtoolchainaimed at a specific hardware configuration, collectively called aLinux Support Package(LSP), and other integrated tools including theEclipse-based DevRocketintegrated development environment(IDE).[5]The distribution is available in three editions, each aimed at differentmarket segments:Professional Edition,Carrier Grade Edition,andMobilinux.[6]The MontaVista Linux toolkit includes specific code libraries to easily migrate fromWind River Systems'VxWorksand thepSOSoperating systems.

OpenCGX[edit]

Project OpenCGX is an open and free to use embeddedLinuxdistribution from MontaVista Software LLC. OpenCGX is based on MontaVista’s eleventh generation Carrier Grade Linux. Engineers can quickly jumpstart theirARMandx86development with a full embedded Linux distribution that is easily customizable. OpenCGX in its introduction is based onYocto2.4 withLinux Kernel4.14 (or latest LTS kernel) andGNU7.2 toolchain.

Carrier Grade eXpress (CGX)[edit]

As a cornerstone in MontaVista's product lineup,Carrier Grade eXpress (CGX)is a robust operating system equipped withCarrier Grade Linux (CGL)specifications, ensuring unparalleled performance and security for a wide array of interconnected smart applications across industries.

MontaVista Linux CGX 5.0,[7]the 15th generation of MontaVista’s Carrier Grade Linux, is built on the foundation of theYocto Project5.0 LTS release and theLinux kernel 6.6 LTS.With theGCC 13andCLANG 18toolchain, MontaVista CGX 5.0 provides a commercially supported Linux distribution for creating diverse embedded products on major CPU architectures, including x86, ARM, PPC, MIPS, and RISC-V.

Carrier Grade Edition[edit]

MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition (CGE) is a commercial-grade Linux development platform for developers working withreliability, availability, and serviceability(RAS) managed hardware (Hardware Platform Interface(HPI),Intelligent Platform Management Interface(IPMI)) or custom hardware, who need long-term support and high availability.[8] Carrier Grade Linux is governed by theLinux FoundationCGL working group.

DevRocket[edit]

MontaVista DevRocketis a set ofEclipseplug-insfor facilitating application and system development with MontaVista Linux. DevRocketintegrated development environment(IDE) runs on Linux,SolarisandWindows.It uses the EclipseC++Development Toolkit (CDT). Starting with DevRocket 5.0, users can add MontaVista's plug-ins into an existing Eclipse installation, or install Eclipse with the plugins already loaded.[5]

DevRocket is available in two varieties: a Platform Developer Kit (PDK) and Application Developer Kit (ADK). The Platform Developer Kit includes the ability to communicate with a target (RSE, SSH), create and manage file systems,debugging(kgdb), and performance tuning (memory leak,memory use, system profiling). The application developer kit includes a virtual target for developing applications earlier in the development cycle, one-click edit/compile/debug, and performance tuning.[9]

Services[edit]

Custom Hardware Enablement[edit]

RTOS/Legacy Migration[edit]

System Certification[edit]

MontaVista Linux is being used in applications within IT and telecom that need to be certified according toCommon Criteria,up toEAL4+level. Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ (EAL4+) is commonly used to secure connectivity in critical environments, such as fire and police departments, or aviation and industry control systems. With the help of EAL4+ these critical environments can, for example, ensure secure and safe phone calls, control communication in-flight and for the assembly line, and achieve secure internet access.

Legacy products[edit]

Several legacy products are available from MontaVista under long-term support agreements.[10]

Mobilinux[edit]

MontaVistaMobilinuxis for wireless handsets and other mobile devices such asGlobal Positioning System(GPS) devices, portable medical devices, and wirelessPOS terminals.Mobilinux's key features include dynamicpower management,real-time performance, fastbooting,and smallmemory footprint.[11]

Professional Edition[edit]

MontaVista Professional Edition (Pro) is for general embedded Linux developers. Pro is for intelligent device markets, including networking and communications, instrumentation and control,aerospaceand defense,small office/home office(SOHO) devices, andmedical devices.[12]Future development of MontaVista Pro has been folded into MontaVista Linux, effectively ending this as a separate edition starting version 5.0.24.

Open source contributions[edit]

MontaVista has a history of being a major contributor to theLinux kerneland theopen sourcecommunity. From the start, Jim Ready said he wanted to make it "100% pure Linux" under the GPL.[13]The core changes to make MontaVista Linux into a real-time operating system were made by Nigel Gamble and later updated byRobert Love.[14]Robert Love submitted the changes to the Linux kernel in 2001. The Linux 2.6 stable kernel series is the first to include similar features, such as priority-basedpreemption.As of 2008, MontaVista had contributed 1.2% of the Linux kernel, making it the 9th-largest corporate contributor to the Linux kernel, according to a survey by the Linux Foundation.[15]

MontaVista has also spun off independent open source projects based on several of its features, including dynamicpower management,high resolutionPOSIXtimers, thepramfs file system,[16]and theopenaisimplementation of theService Availability Forum's (SA Forum) Application Interface Specification.[17]

Distribution[edit]

Main article:List of devices that run MontaVista Linux

Other versions of MontaVista Linux are used in devices made by a number of partners, includingSony BraviaTVs,NECrouters, and others, especially inJapan.[18]A version of MontaVista Linux OS is used inDell LatitudeE4200 and E4300 notebooks[19][20]to provide theLatitude ONfeature.[21]

Cisco NX-OSis based on HardHat Linux.[22]

Mobile phones[edit]

Motorolabecame the first company to use Linux on a mobile phone when it released theMotorola A760to theChinesemarket on February 16, 2003. Motorola chose to use MontaVista Linux in the Motorola A760 and future Linux-based phones, despite the fact that Motorola was a founding member of the competingSymbianOS.[23]Since then, Motorola has increased focus on its Linux platform and publicly stated that the future platform for all its mid- and high-tier mobile phones will be Linux withJava,[24]and other phone manufacturers NEC andPanasonichave developed a common platform based on MontaVista Linux.[25][26]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^Watch, Wireless (October 18, 2004)."MontaVista claims realtime support for Linux mobile".Theregister.co.uk.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
  2. ^"MontaVista company profile".Mvista.RetrievedMarch 9,2021.
  3. ^"MontaVista Software- Commercial Embedded Linux Solutions".
  4. ^"MontaVista touts native hard real-time Linux".Archived fromthe originalon September 4, 2012.
  5. ^ab"MontaVista official DevRocket page".Mvista. Archived fromthe originalon January 5, 2012.Retrieved2012-01-12.
  6. ^"MontaVista official Products page".Mvista.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
  7. ^"MontaVista Unveils CGX 5.0 – An AI-Ready Embedded Linux Platform Secured by Design"(Press release). San Jose, CA: MontaVista. April 9, 2024.RetrievedJune 8,2024.
  8. ^"MontaVista official Carrier-Grade Edition details page".Mvista.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
  9. ^"MontaVista's embedded Linux app dev tools go" all-plugin "".Archived fromthe originalon September 6, 2012.
  10. ^MontaVista, Product Lifecycle (March 10, 2021)."Product Lifecycle".
  11. ^"MontaVista official Mobilinux details page".Mvista. Archived fromthe originalon January 14, 2012.Retrieved2012-01-12.
  12. ^"MontaVista official Professional Edition details page".Mvista.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
  13. ^"An interview with MontaVista Founder Jim Ready".Archived fromthe originalon January 28, 2013.
  14. ^"Updated Linux kernel preemption patches".Lwn.net.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
  15. ^"Linux Kernel Development (April 2008)".Archived fromthe originalon June 3, 2008.
  16. ^"Linux:: MontaVista Contributes to Open Source for CE Linux".
  17. ^"About OpenAIS".Openais.org. Archived fromthe originalon March 8, 2012.Retrieved2012-01-12.
  18. ^"MontaVista beefs up Japan presence".Archived fromthe originalon July 10, 2012.
  19. ^"Newsroom".Dell.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
  20. ^Schwankert, Steven (October 22, 2008)."Instant-on Dell desktop to debut soon | Hardware".InfoWorld. Archived fromthe originalon October 29, 2008.Retrieved2012-01-12.
  21. ^"Latitude ON Launched Today | blog.mvista".Mvista. September 29, 2009. Archived fromthe originalon December 5, 2010.RetrievedJanuary 12,2012.
  22. ^"Hacking NX-OS Part 3 | Maximum Entropy".
  23. ^"Motorola discloses that its new A760 handset uses MontaVista Linux".Archived fromthe originalon January 28, 2013.
  24. ^Segan, Sascha (July 26, 2006)."Motorola Outlines Plans for RAZR Successor, The SCPL".PC Magazine.RetrievedJune 27,2008.
  25. ^"Linux powers DoCoMo's first 3.5G phone".Archived fromthe originalon July 10, 2012.
  26. ^"NEC and Panasonic form mobile phone development joint venture".Archived fromthe originalon July 19, 2012.


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