Leamington Spa, UK February 2007 – Pebble Bay, embedded services consultancy for communication technologies OEMs, has been selected by Radstone Embedded Computing – now part of GE Fanuc Embedded Systems – to provide bespoke software development services to develop Green Hills Software, INTEGRITY™ foundation code for Radstone’s latest range of VMEbus, PowerPC based hardware.
Pebble Bay has been contracted by Radstone for a complex, multi-faceted project to develop the low-level foundation code essential to enable Radstone’s hardware to operate securely and reliably for a specific US based customer. Radstone develops and manufactures a broad range of COTS embedded computing solutions for military and defence applications and has chosen to outsource this foundation code development to supplement the expertise of its in-house engineering teams.
Pebble Bay created a full GHS INTEGRITY™ Board Support Package (BSP) for Radstone’s PPCM2, dual 1.4GHz 7448 PowerPC Single Board Computer. The INTEGRITY™ BSP contains low-level support for the hardware’s comprehensive input/output facilities, including: serial, Ethernet, VMEbus, USB and general-purpose I/O. Pebble Bay also developed code to support special features to support the board’s dual-processor capabilities. The development of a product quality BSP was enabled through extremely rigorous testing against a well defined test plan. This produced a ruggedized and fit-for-purpose foundation layer of code upon which higher-level code can be developed by Radstone’s customers. The BSP will be made available to customers directly from Radstone.
The technical skills and expertise Pebble Bay brought to the project include a deep understanding of RTOS and device driver development, knowledge of the Green Hills MULTI™ and INTEGRITY™ development environment, and intimacy with all the peripheral interfaces such as PCIbus, VMEbus, inter-process communications, USB, Ethernet and GPIO. Equally important was Pebble Bay’s mature and pragmatic approach to project management: working along timelines identical to Radstone’s in-house development teams, Pebble Bay were able to provide a risk free engagement for Radstone, at a perfectly managed fixed cost.
“In Pebble Bay we have found a reliable partner who can handle multiple concurrent projects, work to our aggressive timescales, and still deliver against requirements,” said Andy West, Software Product Manager – Processor Group at GE Fanuc Embedded Systems. “It is refreshing to work with an outsourced team on our foundation code that understands the importance of talking openly about how the project is going.”
“We have been overjoyed that Radstone has engaged our services,” commented Nick McNamara, Commercial Director at Pebble Bay. “Our independence, expertise and ability to provide the diversity of skills essential for today’s embedded software environment is an excellent resource for cutting-edge technology OEMs such as GE Fanuc Embedded Systems, who need to keep a tight control on the software development process and budget.”
Pebble Bay’s model is to develop a mutually agreed contractual commitment for every project, specifying budget, deliverables and timescales, and to closely project-manage this with regular progress reports. This enables customers to better plan their engineering budgets and reassure product management teams with a reliable source for on-time delivery. In addition, by engaging with an outsourced team working offsite, the major pitfall of expensive temporary contractors being distracted from their work by being onsite is avoided. Pebble Bay provides a cost-effective and reliable alternative to this scenario.
Pebble Bay was set up in January 2006. The company provides independent consulting, training and project-based development services primarily to OEMs of digital video and communication technologies. The company’s expertise is in RTOS technologies, BSP and device driver development, integration and customisation, application porting, troubleshooting and project management.
About Pebble Bay
Pebble Bay (www.pebblebay.com) is an independent, privately-owned company that specialises in providing embedded software consultancy, training and bespoke development services. The company’s core technical focus is on real-time operating systems, device drivers, BSPs and hardware/software interfacing based on both commercial and open-source products.
With over 50 years experience in real-time and embedded systems, the Pebble Bay team have worked for market-leading vendors of embedded tools, real-time operating systems and services including Telelogic, QNX Software Systems and Wind River Systems. The company’s model is to work with each customer to a bespoke pre-defined contract that clearly sets out the project deliverables, budget and timescales, enabling clients to have better cost control and clear visibility of the project expectations.
Pebble Bay’s founders are: Nick McNamara, Commercial Director; John Efstathiades, Engineering Director; and Ian Willats, Consulting Director.
About Radstone
Radstone Embedded Computing (www.radstone.com) – part of GE Fanuc Embedded Systems – is a leader in the design, development and manufacture of a broad range of COTS embedded computing solutions for military and defence applications. Headquartered at Towcester in the UK and in Billerica, Massachusetts – where Radstone’s rapidly expanding Advanced Engineering Centre is home to growing technology development and customer support teams – the product line includes a range of VMEbus, VPX and CompactPCI platforms available in any one of five ruggedization levels.