Open Source Summit Japan & Automotive Linux Summit 2021

Open source software has evolved to become a set of building blocks for assembling products. Dependable systems and products need to exhibit they are trustworthy, reliable, and maintainable, so the open source projects that they incorporate (ie “building blocks”) need to be as well.  The challenge is that a lot of open source projects used in embedded systems have evolved from hobbyist roots, and the analysis of a project’s quality, reliability, and maintainability is not always performed. In the rush to get a product out, many organizations skip the necessary analysis for dependability before deciding to include a project that provides key functionality.  As software bills of materials (SBOMs) are more widely adopted in the industry, the engineering background of these foundational projects will become more of a focus.  Operating systems (like Linux, Zephyr),  hypervisors, boot loaders, compilers and build infrastructures are the foundations for many of the world’s products.   Determining how these components can continue to evolve with robust ecosystems, while incorporating the quality, reliability and maintainability is the challenge for the current and future generations of embedded products.