Embedded System Development for Electronic Automobile Maker

Because of the confidentiality of the project I can not give allot of information without the person or company being under contract. Our company is a new Electric Vehicle Manufacture (Automotive Company). We currently need a strong skilled reliable company, or individuals to develop a couple of things for us:  Embedded Systems  Embedded Operating Systems  Complex Vehicle Software Systems The provider should have experience in embedded software architectures: There are several different types of software architecture in common use. Simple control loop In this design, the software simply has a loop. The loop calls subroutines, each of which manages a part of the hardware or software. Interrupt controlled system Some embedded systems are predominantly interrupt controlled. This means that tasks performed by the system are triggered by different kinds of events. An interrupt could be generated for example by a timer in a predefined frequency, or by a serial port controller receiving a byte. These kinds of systems are used if event handlers need low latency and the event handlers are short and simple. Usually these kinds of systems run a simple task in a main loop also, but this task is not very sensitive to unexpected delays. Sometimes the interrupt handler will add longer tasks to a queue structure. Later, after the interrupt handler has finished, these tasks are executed by the main loop. This method brings the system close to a multitasking kernel with discrete processes. Cooperative multitasking A nonpreemptive multitasking system is very similar to the simple control loop scheme, except that the loop is hidden in an API. The programmer defines a series of tasks, and each task gets its own environment to "run" in. Then, when a task is idle, it calls an idle routine (usually called "pause", "wait", "yield", "nop" (Stands for no operation), etc.). The advantages and disadvantages are very similar to the control loop, except that adding new software is easier, by simply writing a new task, or adding to the queue-interpreter. Preemptive multitasking or multi-threading In this type of system, a low-level piece of code switches between tasks or threads based on a timer (connected to an interrupt). This is the level at which the system is generally considered to have an "operating system" kernel. Depending on how much functionality is required, it introduces more or less of the complexities of managing multiple tasks running conceptually in parallel. As any code can potentially damage the data of another task (except in larger systems using an MMU) programs must be carefully designed and tested, and access to shared data must be controlled by some synchronization strategy, such as message queues, semaphores or a non-blocking synchronization scheme. Because of these complexities, it is common for organizations to buy a real-time operating system, allowing the application programmers to concentrate on device functionality rather than operating system services, at least for large systems; smaller systems often cannot afford the overhead associated with a generic real time system, due to limitations regarding memory size, performance, and/or battery life. Microkernels and exokernels A microkernel is a logical step up from a real-time OS. The usual arrangement is that the operating system kernel allocates memory and switches the CPU to different threads of execution. User mode processes implement major functions such as file systems, network interfaces, etc. In general, microkernels succeed when the task switching and intertask communication is fast, and fail when they are slow. Exokernels communicate efficiently by normal subroutine calls. The hardware, and all the software in the system are available to, and extensible by application programmers. Monolithic kernels In this case, a relatively large kernel with sophisticated capabilities is adapted to suit an embedded environment. This gives programmers an environment similar to a desktop operating system like Linux or Microsoft Windows, and is therefore very productive for development; on the downside, it requires considerably more hardware resources, is often more expensive, and because of the complexity of these kernels can be less predictable and reliable. Common examples of embedded monolithic kernels are Embedded Linux and Windows CE. Despite the increased cost in hardware, this type of embedded system is increasing in popularity, especially on the more powerful embedded devices such as Wireless Routers and GPS Navigation Systems. Here are some of the reasons: • Ports to common embedded chip sets are available. • They permit re-use of publicly available code for Device Drivers, Web Servers, Firewalls, and other code. • Development systems can start out with broad feature-sets, and then the distribution can be configured to exclude unneeded functionality, and save the expense of the memory that it would consume. • Many engineers believe that running application code in user mode is more reliable, easier to debug and that therefore the development process is easier and the code more portable. • Many embedded systems lack the tight real time requirements of a control system. A system such as Embedded Linux has fast enough response for many applications. • Features requiring faster response than can be guaranteed can often be placed in hardware. • Many RTOS systems have a per-unit cost. When used on a product that is or will become a commodity, that cost is significant. Exotic custom operating systems A small fraction of embedded systems require safe, timely, reliable or efficient behavior unobtainable with the one of the above architectures. In this case an organization builds a system to suit. In some cases, the system may be partitioned into a "mechanism controller" using special techniques, and a "display controller" with a conventional operating system. A communication system passes data between the two. Additional software components In addition to the core operating system, many embedded systems have additional upper-layer software components. These components consists of networking protocol stacks like TCP/IP, FTP, HTTP, and HTTPS, and also included storage capabilities like FAT and Flash memory management systems. If the embedded devices has audio and video capabilities, then the appropriate drivers and codecs will be present in the system. In the case of the monolithic kernels, many of these software layers are included. In the RTOS category, the availability of the additional software components depends upon the commercial offering. Should also have some knowledge of the Transportation Industry both in Automobile, Trucking, and Bus Transportation. Would require you to also envolve research and development in various electric automobile companies like Think, Tesla, Venturi, and Phoneix Motors. When bidding please provide the following information:  Information on your company or your self with a CV on experience and background in Embedded Systems design.  Examples or diagrams of your embedded system design work.  Outline and knowledge of Embedded Systems and Embedded Operating Systems Budget, Time Frame, Delverables, and other information will be discuss once contact is made.