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What is the technology behind the Integration Platform?

The Integration Platform is based on the BitBake methodology from the OpenEmbedded project, combined with the MontaVista add-ons of mirroring and the MontaVista Content Server. The Integration Platform now allows customers to fully customize their distribution with easy access to source code, patches, and recipes on how to build binaries, while at the same time providing MontaVista binaries for those customers who don’t have a need for customization. The BitBake tool doesn’t lock customers in and there is a large community with momentum behind it, continuously improving the technology. The tool is easy to use and highly customizable.

What is the difference between BitBake, MontaVista Linux 6, and OpenEmbedded?

Open Embedded is a community project that includes the BitBake tool, which allows users to create unique embedded Linux Distributions. With the new release of MontaVista Linux 6, MontaVista is shipping the MontaVista Integration Platform, which allows customers to customize and rebuild the MSD for their unique requirements. The Integration Platform works with all MontaVista Linux 6 MSDs and uses BitBake as its core technology, and we have added additional functionality on top of BitBake including:

• Pre-canned recipes for typical software configurations
• Pre-built configurations to reduce build time to minutes rather than hours
• Host tools that make the entire system more easily executable on current and future hosts
• Configuration signature (cfgsig) that invalidates prebuilts if the user changes to a different configuration

What does the MontaVista Integration Platform (MVIP) consist of?

The MontaVista Integration Platform (MVIP) is the center-piece of MontaVista's tools that deliver MSDs to our customers and empower developers to adapt MontaVista Linux to the needs of their design. The MVIP enables source-driven customization of the entire MontaVista Linux based software stack. The MVIP performs the following critical functions for developers:

• Automates cross-compilation of the target software stack for their design
• Creates binary packages that can be used for deployed system maintenance and upgrades
• Creates the root file system(s) for the design
• Creates one or more file system images formatted in various disk and flash compatible filesystems
• Manages customizations to the software stack so that the design can be easily reproduced and configuration managed

Why did MontaVista introduce the Integration Platform into MontaVista Linux 6?

MontaVista listened to its customers and their desire to be able to rebuild the entire distribution from source. The MontaVista Integration Platform (MVIP) offers capabilities of customization that go vastly beyond adding and removing packages. The unified tool provides capabilities ranging from building bootable images to modifiying software components at the sub-package level. Only a source based tool would offer this capacity.

What value does the Integration Platform add to BitBake to make it more productive for our customers?

The BitBake tool is easy to use and highly customizable, but using the tool by itself doesn’t solve one of the biggest challenges embedded Linux developers run into: Engineers need continuous access to recipes and sources, not just during the design phase, but also for the entire time of maintenance. However, recipes and sources disappear from open source project websites and MontaVista therefore created a big value-add with its MontaVista Zone Content Server, which is part of the MVIP. The Content Server offers functionality that can’t be found anywhere else, including:

• Archiving of recipes and sources
• Multiple releases of each collection
• Prebuilt binaries
• Mirroring of the above items

What is the MontaVista Zone Content Server?

The MontaVista Zone Content Server mirrors all the source needed for an MSD, and delivers that source code and pre-built binaries on-demand to the MontaVista Integration Platform, freeing the developer from the repetitive task of searching for new source code and updates. The developer can identify changes, updates, and dependencies in the code via the Integration Platform, with the option of incorporating these changes to the build environment. Features include source mirror, prebuildt staging packages, local mirroring, and proxy support.

Does the Integration Platform replace MontaVista DevRocket?

No, both the Integration Platform and MontaVista DevRocket 6 are part of the SDK that comes with a MontaVista Linux 6 subscription. The SDK also includes the cross-development toolchain.

What are MontaVista DevRocket 6 details?

MontaVista DevRocket 6 is the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that supports MontaVista Linux 6. DevRocket 6 delivers a set of tools designed to streamline and automate common embedded Linux development and analysis tasks. DevRocket 6 is based on the Eclipse project and is delivered as a set of Eclipse plugins that increase developer productivity by simplifying the complex development tasks of embedded Linux. DevRocket 6 plug-ins can work within standard Eclipse-based platforms based on the Ganymede release or with the bundled Eclipse runtime delivered with MVL6. Features include MVIP projects, MemTraq, target management, fully automated edit/compile/debug, and advanced analysis.

Where can I get an overview of MontaVista Linux 6?

The webinar “Streamlining the embedded Linux development process with MontaVista Linux 6” provides an overview of the product.

Where can I find more information on MontaVista Linux 6?

Additional information on the product can be found on the MontaVista website and in the embedded Linux developer community Meld.

 MontaVista Linux 6 licensing and pricing