Android has lots of buzz, especially when
it comes to smart phones. But it also will be
showing up in embedded applications as the
range of support expands. One of the leaders
is Mentor Graphics. Its recent acquisition of
Embedded Alley, a major Android supporter,
was highlighted at this year’s DAC 2009 show.
Mentor Graphics is looking to support
smart-phone developers as well as anyone else
interested in utilizing Android in an embedded
application. Android is likely to find its way
into everything from microwaves to automotive
entertainment and navigation systems. It
provides a standard interface and connectivity
as well as an application platform.
One advantage Mentor Graphics brings to
the table is its Nucleus real-time operating
system (RTOS) and virtual-machine support.
Blending Linux and Nucleus is natural,
with Nucleus handling the communications
hardware and Linux providing the Android
framework. Virtual-machine support puts
everything on a multicore chip.
ARM and MIPS were on hand, spotlighting
Mentor Graphics’ range of hardware platform
support. Many of the ARM licensees will
support Mentor Graphics, including Freescale,
Texas Instruments, Marvell, and RMI.
This includes Embedded Alley’s Dalvik Virtual
Machine and JNI (Java Native Interface),
the Android Application Framework and SDK
(Eclipse Plug-in), and the Android Device
Emulator for Eclipse.
EMBEDDED ALLEY
www.embeddedalley.com
MENTOR GRAPHICS
www.mentor.com