Bosch automotive technology is adding to its innovative portfolio what it calls a "multimedia reference system." The system displays the results of months of collaboration between Bosch and the Moblin community. With a customer win already under its belt, Bosch hopes this multimedia reference system is just the beginning of its foray into the world of open source software and in-vehicle infotainment systems.

Bosch says that it is the completely separate nature of the multimedia portion of its automotive subsystem, which is based on the Moblin project that makes it so valuable. It can be "plugged in" to Bosch's existing automotive technology without interfering with the security of either part. Not only that, but the traditional automotive technology such as gauge monitoring, security, and systems awareness, will still run even if the multimedia platform goes down. Joachim Creutzburg of Bosch adds, "For the automotive technology, things are built on automotive chipsets. For example, real time availability is a very important factor in automotive technology. On the Linux side, there are no automotive specific interfaces or buses." Since portable multimedia platforms don't include technologies considered essential for automotive systems, the ability to keep the two subsystems separate is a big selling point. "That's why we have the two subsystems," Creutzburg says. "We have the very secure, closed, highly reliable automotive subsystem, and we have the open, ready to adopt new functionalities multimedia subsystem." Bosch keeps each subsystem secure via a literal physical firewall. "It's hardware separation, two different chipsets. The auto chip on one side and the Intel Atom chip on the other. In the future, we will build this out onto one system on chip where we have two runtime environments."

The most challenging part of creating Bosch's multimedia reference system was coding the HMI interface and to connect the two subsystems, Creutzburg says. "We used Moblin version 2.1 and built our own HMI on top, adding some gateway software and a bridge to the automotive 'world'." One challenge that Bosch had to overcome was with a feature of open source software that it also considers a major benefit: the rapid pace of development and the speed of software updates. The problem was that as Bosch was developing the HMI it would be porting one version of an application, and in the meantime a new version would be released that would break the HMI or cause stability issues between it and the Moblin project applications. Discovering this and having to go back and completely recode elements of the HMI "was very time consuming for us," Creutzburg says. To help overcome these challenges, Bosch stayed in very close contact with Moblin community throughout the development process. Creutzburg says that as development continues, the Bosch development team still continues to find and close gaps between the existing product and new capabilities from the development community, with help of the Moblin community. "We would like to have even closer contact with the developers and come up with a road map that helps us know when we can expect new features and API changes - where we can plan our own roadmap on top using this information."

Even with the challenges Bosch faced and overcame, development of the multimedia reference system and interaction with the open source development community has been a positive experience, Creutzburg says. "We learned a lot from the open source environment. This prototype based on the Atom processor is really a new way of looking at multimedia in the automobile." He says, "most of the system just worked, without any changes. If you had to develop on your own from scratch, it would cost a lot of money and take you ages to come to the same result. It was a very valuable experience and the right choice." Now that the multimedia reference system is complete, Bosch is two months into work on a custom build-out of a Moblin based system for one of its automotive customers, and expects to have the custom IVI finished in 2012.

* All names and brands are the property of their respective owners.

Tina Gasperson is a seasoned technology journalist who writes for some of the most respected publications in the industry, including Linux.com, CIO.com, SDTimes, and Entrepreneur Media. Since 1999, her focus has been on open source software and enterprise technologies. In the course of her career, she has interviewed hundreds of CEOs, CTOs, and CIOs, tested and reviewed countless software applications and hardware devices, and authored more than two thousand articles and case studies.

For her writing on MoblinZone, Mrs. Gasperson is an independent writer/reporter. MoblinZone is funded by Intel Corporation.

Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tinahdee.