Accelerating Mobile Applications Development with Unicon ...

WH ITE PA PER

Accelerating Mobile Applications Development with Unicon Systems CCOTS™ Platforms January 29, 2009 – version 0.3

Prepared by

Bill Weinberg, LinuxPundit.com for Unicon Systems

Unicon Systems platforms Your choice for mobile and display applications

Accelerating Mobile Applications Development with Unicon Systems Platforms

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................4 WHO SHOULD READ THIS WHITE PAPER 4

THE CHANGING MARKETPLACE FOR INTELLIGENT DEVICES ...........................................4 KEY TRENDS 4 CONVERGENCE OF PCS AND MOBILE DEVICES 5

THE OEM DESIGN CYCLE........................................................................................................6 TRADITIONAL OEM DESIGN PRACTICES 6 HARDWARE DESIGN CYCLE 6 SOFTWARE DESIGN CYCLE 7

RE-INVENTING OEM DESIGN WITH UNICON SYSTEMS........................................................8 CCOTS ADVANTAGE 8 GOING TO MARKET WITH UNICON SYSTEMS – STEPS FOR SUCCESS 10 BENEFITS 11

CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................12


Abstract Mobile and ubiquitous computing represent some of the greatest technical and financial opportunities in today’s IT marketplace. Mobile telephony, consumer electronics, digital signage, automotive systems, medical instrumentation and other rich content/small footprint devices play in and also create rich ecosystems. Ecosystem participants eagerly contemplate product and services that feature high volume, high impact business prospects.

OEMs, integrators, applications developers and operators, however, face formi-dable challenges in addressing these markets efficiently and profitably. Design-ing, building, provisioning and deploying this new generation of intelligent de-vices present an array of high hurdles: short development and product life cycles, constrained bills of materials, and the need for domain-specific expertise in both hardware and software design.

This white paper examines the existing market and procurement channels for connected intelligent devices. It highlights the challenges facing key ecosystem players and proposes a new paradigm for developing and deploying mobile and other ubiquitous applications:

CCOTS - Customizable Commercial Off-The-Shelf systems


Accelerating Mobile Applications Development with Unicon Systems CCOTS™ Platforms Introduction Mobile and ubiquitous computing represent the greatest technical and market opportunities in today’s IT marketplace. Devices for mobile telephony, consumer electronics, digital signage, automotive systems, medical instrumentation and similar applications share key attributes:

rich content and high-value services small physical form factors tiered, multi-player ecosystems for device and content delivery Moreover, ecosystem participants eagerly contemplate product and services that feature high volume, high impact business prospects.

OEMs, integrators, applications developers and operators, however, face formidable challenges in ad-dressing markets efficiently and profitably. Designing, building, provisioning and deploying this new generation of intelligent devices present an array of high hurdles: short development and product life cy-cles, constrained bills of materials, and the need for domain-specific expertise in both hardware and soft-ware design.

This white paper examines the existing market and procurement channels for connected intelligent de-vices. It highlights the challenges facing key ecosystem players and proposes a new paradigm for devel-oping and deploying mobile and other ubiquitous applications: Customizable Commercial Off-The-Shelf systems – CCOTS.

Who Should Read this White Paper This document is intended to help technical decision makers at OEMs, operators and developers of mo-bile telephony, display, consumer electronics and industrial applications. In particular, this document strives to assist

Developers and Development Team Managers

CTOs, VPs and Directors of Engineering

OEM Product Management Teams

The Changing Marketplace for Intelligent Devices In the past five years, both the development practices and the target marketplace for intelligent devices, and the very definition of those devices, has undergone a radical reshaping.

Key Trends Engineering practices and product management that once targeted mono-purpose devices are shifting

to creation of multi-purpose platforms to serve multiple products, product lines and lines of business

Mainstream intelligent device platforms are moving from wholly closed and proprietary to increas-ingly open definitions and open source (e.g., Linux, Microsoft Shared Source for Windows, Open SymbianOS, etc.)


Surging software content of device software – consumer electronics, mobile telephony and other prod-ucts are today software-centric and becoming platforms for value-added software and services (vs. tra-ditional hardware focus)

OEMs increasingly seek to outsource software platform development (to ISVs, developer houses and integra-tors) and to focus on value-added and differentiating engineering invest-ments

Increasing IP connectivity for all classes of devices, not just content-delivery vehicles (beyond mobile phones and television STBs (Set-Top Boxes)

Multi-core CPU technology, once exclusively targeting high-end data center deployment, is becoming ubiq-uitous in many types of intelligent de-vices (e.g., dual-core ARM processors in mobile phones and roadmaps for quad core and beyond for Intel Atom and Power Architecture devices)

Existing categories (e.g., PCs and mobile phones) are converging and morphing into new devices and form-factors (e.g., Smart Phones, MIDs, Nettops and automotive systems)

Volume is moving from low-end devices (e.g., entry-level mobile phones) to middle-tier, with accom-panying margin pressure

Growth opportunities and margin exist for mid-range to high-end devices (e.g., smart phones, DVRs, medical devices, etc.)

Convergence of PCs and Mobile Devices Convergence has been the catchword of the last decade – convergence of fixed and mobile, of wireless and wire-line, of data and voice, and of desktop PCs and mobile handsets. Certainly not all predictions of convergence have come to pass -- most legacy end-point types and form factors listed here live on in their own right. What has converged are the once diverse requirements at each point on the mobile-fixed con-tinuum. Requirements for rich connectivity – WiFi, WLAN, Bluetooth, USB, Ethernet, etc. – go beyond PCs and handsets to include a growing array of other intelligent devices, from in-car systems to medical devices to media players and STB/DVRs to industrial control systems to display systems.

Through market investments by industry players, improvements in throughput for EDGE and 3G rollout by operators, convergence is indeed happening, both in conventional form factors (smart phones and notebooks) and in newly-minted device definitions (MID, Nettop, etc.). With these legacy and new form factors, increasingly connected, ubiquitous CE devices, and new and refreshed communications standards like WiMax, NFC, wireless USB and Bluetooth 3.0, device manufacturers, ODMs and integrators are hedging their bets by integrating rich sets of multiple interconnects in current and next-generation de-vices.

Figure 1. – Device S/W Content (LoC) Doubling Year-over-Year, Outstripping H/W Value-added


The OEM Design Cycle OEMs today find themselves under incrementally increasing pressure to cut time-to-market while inte-grating expanding functionality and forward-looking technical specifications. Product design cycles are today highly compressed, down from 18-24 months (early 1990s), from 14-18 months (4-5 years ago) to just 7-9 months. This compression applies to mobile, consumer electronics, infrastructure equipment, and to almost every other type of intelligent device.

Traditionally, vertically integrated OEMs maintained product teams numbering in the hundreds to build and support their products and product lines. To meet the realities of today’s marketplace, OEMs large and small find themselves

Cutting back on engineering and support staff Outsourcing design and development efforts Building on COTS (Commercial Off-the-Shelf) hardware and software components (including open

source) Deconstructing legacy visions of seamless, vertical value-added Let’s examine how these trends impact the intelligent device business:

Traditional OEM Design Practices As a matter of common sense, the value delivered by intelligent devices is embodied in the integration of hardware and software. This co-equal and complementary distribution of effort, however, is out of sync with the hardware-centric approach of legacy OEM engineering. Legacy hardware-centrism dictates

Separate hardware and software development teams Protracted hardware sourcing and design processes and results in

Late access to prototype and production hardware by software teams Compressed (and stressed) software, design development and integration cycles Poor/limited communication between hardware and software developers No time for feedback and iterative hardware/software co-development Missed market windows and suboptimal device functionality Figure 2. illustrates the main phases and activities involved in legacy design practices. Let’s examine the particulars of the hardware and software design cycles and key dysfunctions in them.

Hardware Design Cycle

Sourcing and Procurement Usually entails lengthy, incremental cultivation of suppliers and technologies, usually at the raw compo-nent level. Selection criteria biased towards isolated functionality and cost with (presume but arbitrary) relationship to requirements of actual complete intelligent devices.

Issues: corporate supplier relationships vs. specific design requirements; need to sort through thousands of parts from dozens of suppliers; component specification vs. holistic system compatibility and perform-ance; individuated component analysis vs. integrated hardware and software view.


Hardware Evaluation Components selected in isolation evaluated in nominally more integrated environment (evalua-tion and reference boards, bread-boarding, etc.).

Issues: low-quality, errata-prone chipsets and boards; minimal or unrealistic software environ-ments; evaluation criteria based on synthetic benchmarks, not integrated performance.

OEM Hardware Design Building on results of Hardware Evaluation, OEM design team creates a systems platform in response to low-level functional requirements.

Issues: limited vision into final product, software-centric value-add; design choices narrowed by Sourcing and Procurement practices; design choices based on Procurement, not supplier road-maps and forward-looking market requirements.

Errata and Revision Hardware QA and testing, primarily to low-level functional specifications.

Issues: late platform delivery predicates partial testing of functionality; “Big Bang” integration leaves little or no time for incremental revision and quality improvement

Software Design Cycle Despite the relative contributions of software vs. hardware to product differentiation, the software design cycle is subject to limitations and availability of prototyping and production hardware:

Software Prototype Proof of concept and software demonstration built on available hardware (often “whitebox” desktop PC) and software components long before application-specific hardware becomes available.

Issues: gap between prototype and production hardware (performance, peripherals, CPU architecture); limited or no path to feed findings back into hardware design (co-design).

Pre-integration Porting/enabling of prototype or early production software onto hardware evaluation platform

Issues: limited availability and variable quality of evaluation hardware; need to migrate h/w dependent system software (OS kernel, drivers) to unstable hardware BEFORE value-added software.

Driver Development and Board Support Creation of production-quality system software layer and preliminary integration of application-enabling middleware (user interface elements, CODECs, networking, etc.).

Figure 2. – Traditional OEM Design Cycle


Issues: need for “cross pollination” of software and hardware teams; access to complete hardware specs under non-disclosure; lack of off-the-shelf drivers for new hardware; gap between hardware spec and ac-tual devices in situ (memory mapping, bus cycles, real-time behaviors)

Platform Integration Formal integration of (pre)production hardware, system software, enabling middleware and applications under development.

Issues: viewed as “one-time” event instead of on-going activities (“Big Bang”); production hardware sel-dom ready or stable;

Application Development Design, creation, debugging, testing of value-added applications for core device functionality and market differentiation

Issues: largest development teams and total engineering effort squeezed into compressed timeframes; missed opportunities for concurrent development with hardware; unknown and poorly understood de-pendencies on underlying system software and hardware (no co-design).

Test and QA Including but not limited to functional and Unit Testing of complete device (software on hardware).

Issues: limited testing expertise and methodologies not up to challenge of large code bases; limited means to resolve performance issues; bottlenecks from human intervention to test UI and MMI; compression from late delivery of production hardware and software; poor conformance to industry standards and cer-tification regimes detected too late in life-cycle.

Re-inventing OEM Design with Unicon Systems In creating the “Customizable COTS” concept and in executing design and production of Unicon Systems platforms, the company is responding directly to the issues and challenges that face OEMs (as described in the preceding section).

CCOTS Advantage The advantages conferred by Unicon Systems CCOTS technology are summarized in Figure 3. and high-lighted in comparison to the traditional OEM design cycle.

Accelerates Development Cycle Traditional development cycles are hobbled by gaps between hardware readiness and software porting needs. By eliminating early-stage delays from sourcing and from component-level hardware evaluation, and by providing production-ready hardware earlier in the total product life cycle, Unicon Systems CCOTS substantially accelerates product development cycles. CCOTS accomplishes this feat by

Offering development-ready and production-quality platforms from Day One of product development Consolidating costly and ineffective per-component sourcing and procurement into a unified platform

evaluation of production-ready, customizable hardware Giving developers a realistic, performant and off-the-shelf execution environment for every stage of

coding, from prototyping to integration to production Eliminating or reducing complicated and expensive custom device driver development


Speeds Time-to-Market and Time-to-Volume Systems and solutions suppliers intone the mantra of Time-to-Market, but Unicon Systems CCOTS plat-forms actually help OEMs deliver value-added offerings on time and within budget. Getting to market, however, is only half the battle – the economies of scale and quality inherent in Customizable COTS en-sures that OEM products can ship in volume sooner and more sustainably, meeting market expectations for features, functionality and performance in a rapidly-evolving marketplace.

Unicon Systems helps OEMs meet market windows and build volume by

Evolving core technologies in tandem with silicon and display capabilities, e.g.,

CPU support for multi-core ARM, Intel ATOM (roadmap) and beyond Off-the-Shelf integration of Linux-based stacks like ALP and Android as well as

Microsoft WindowsMobile Hardware and software integration and support for evolving wireless protocols, multimedia CODECs,

NFC and other emerging technologies and interfaces

Removing 6-8 months from typical OEM schedule, leapfrogging

Hardware sourcing, procurement, component evaluation and low-level prototyping, From-scratch platform creation, integration Lengthy certification of interfaces for wireless, GPS, NFC, etc. for OEMs large and small

Figure 3. – Comparing Traditional and CCOTS Life Cycles


Serve OEM Product-line Roadmaps, Not Just Point-Product Deliveries Traditional component sourcing and procurement responded to high-level corporate imperative first and product requirement second. Product-specific criteria, moreover, as life-cycle inputs, tend to serve the design needs of point-products, not product-line and multi-generation requirements. By standardizing on Unicon Systems CCOTS platforms, OEMs can

Build on best-in-class silicon for both CPUs and peripherals (e.g., options for CPUs like Samsung 64xx dual-core ARM processors, the same chipset used in the Apple iPhone)

Right-size functionality and cost-down Bills-of-Materials by selectively populating standard periph-eral locations/traces on Unicon Systems film-based CCOTS system boards

Track market trends, internal roadmaps and future-proof designs with modular add-ons (e.g., 3G wireless)

Going to Market with Unicon Systems – Steps for Success Unicon Systems provides an ideal partner and supplier for OEMs, operators, ISVs and other ecosystem participants. With Unicon Systems CCOTS platforms, your Steps for Success include:

Choose from the Range of Unicon Systems Platforms Unicon Systems offers the platforms pictured below, and others, all optimized for development and de-ployment, for mobile, display and industrial applications.

Pegasus Apollo Hermes Helios

All Unicon Systems CCOTS platforms can be further optimized to meet your project’s technical and BOM requirements, through add-on peripherals and by de-populating standard component locations.

Standardize on Commercial or Custom Stacks and Frameworks Unicon Systems has invested in creating maximum interoperability of software and hardware by working with open source and commercial ecosystem partners to support a rich set of standard software platforms and application frameworks. Unicon software development kits let you

Build and cross-deploy Linux-based applications out-of-the-box to Unicon Systems hardware plat-forms

Integrate and develop for open source and third-party platforms like Google Android, ACCESS Linux Platform and even Microsoft Windows Mobile on Unicon CCOTS hardware


Start Developing Value-added Applications Unicon Systems makes it easy for both your systems software and application developers to get started on prototyping and building branded, value-added device applications and interfaces. Instead of struggling with buggy, non-form-factor evaluation boards and PC-based prototyping environments, Unicon Systems provides off-the-shelf development and deployment-ready hardware. With Unicon Systems platforms, your developer and integration teams gain immediate access to realistic, production-equivalent and mar-ket-ready embedded hardware.

Customize and Right-size BoM In parallel with prototyping and application development, your team can work with Unicon Systems to customize CCOTS platforms through the addition of modules and/or cost-down the BoM by de-populating devices and interfaces from the thin-film system board. Adding modules lets OEMs support advanced interfaces like GPRS, NFC and other emerging, high-value connectivity.

The upward and downward scalability of Unicon Systems CCOTS platforms lets OEMs

Optimize BoM costs

Target emerging technologies and markets

Perform incremental integration of system software and applications

Benefits In addition to the benefits described above, working with Unicon Systems confers a range of advantages on your company and product lines:

Time-to-Market / Volume Unicon Systems doesn’t just repeat the mantra of accelerating Time-to-market and Time-to-Volume – we deliver. By pre-integrating the major-ity of mobile and display device capabilities in an off-the-shelf device, Unicon Systems jump starts prototyping, reduces integration risks, and helps field your products in record time.

Lower Total Costs Unicon Systems saves OEMs significant costs at both development and deployment time. By providing both development-ready and deploy-ment-ready hardware and software platforms, Unicon Systems can save


OEMs hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) in sourcing, design, evaluation and QA. And at deployment time, Unicon Systems volume sourcing of CCOTS platforms is often less expensive to manufacture and integrate than in-house custom solutions.

Desktop Functionality Unicon Systems platforms like Hermes and Pegasus offer developers and end-users a full complement of integrated peripherals, complete with de-vice drivers, CODECs and other software. Browsing the web, watching movies, playing music, and other activities can leverage the full-featured technology profile of Unicon Systems software and pre-integrated device drivers, CODECs, middleware and sample applications.

Certification Government and operator certification homologation can impact both the back and front ends of the device life cycle: before they can ship their wares into channel, mobile OEMs and integrators must of course meet requirements of certification regimes enforced by government bodies, network operators and other customer/partners. During procurement, OEMs and integrators must not only vet suppliers for price and perform-ance, they must also look for per-certified and certifiable components. Unicon Systems CCOTS platforms ease certification and homologation during all phases of development and deployment. OEMs can count on integrated pre-certified wireless, NFC and other interfaces on Unicon Systems mobile platforms, speeding procurement and shipment in chan-nel, saving customers time and money better spent in providing value-added features and functionality.

Conclusion The goal of the White Paper has been to present the benefits afforded by Unicon Systems Customizable COTS approach to embedded platform design, and to highlight the range of Unicon Systems platforms that implement that approach. Whether you are building consumer electronics or mobile telephony appli-cations, deploying systems for instrumentation or industrial control, developing display or point-of-sales systems or other applications, Unicon Systems CCOTS platforms accelerate your time to market and time to volume while optimizing development and deployment costs.

Contact Unicon Systems today to learn more about our hardware and software solutions and to change the way you do system development, integration and deployment to better meet the challenges of today’s in-telligent device marketplace.

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