MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo [LWN.net]

MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo

Posted Nov 24, 2010 19:56 UTC (Wed) by iabervon (subscriber, #722)
In reply to: MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo by n8willis
Parent article: MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo

Even so, I think the electronics that control engine timings and such (which is what has been called the "car computer" for a while now) will stay a separate system, which gets probed by the IVI system so that it knows to display the "check engine" alert.

For that matter, the average desktop computer probably has a dozen parts which are computers in the traditional "car computer" sense, and it would be nuts to consider running Linux on them (or having the main system take over their functions). You're not going to run MeeGo on your optical mouse, or have your optical mouse provide light-sensor data to the CPU; similarly, the IVI system is not going to handle all of the processing needs within a car.

There are two simultaneous processes going on: people are putting recognizable computers (operating system, multiple independent programs, user interaction, system image with processes and dynamic memory allocation and such) in more places; and people are replacing physical mechanisms with software implementations on special-purpose hardware (with general-purpose processor architectures). Both of these lead to there being lots more computers in the world, but it's the first and not the second that's relevant here.

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MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo

Posted Nov 24, 2010 21:13 UTC (Wed) by n8willis (subscriber, #43041) [Link] (3 responses)

There is actually a pretty popular open source ECU called MegaSquirt, and yeah, it doesn't need a full multi-user OS. It's mostly popular with racing types. In any case, I'm not really sure I follow what you're upset about, though. You talk about "running MeeGo" on a hardware peripheral device without a processor; I don't understand who you think is saying that.

Besides, if the central IVI box that is connected by CAN bus or whatever to the ECU, the sensors, the security system, etc. *is* running MeeGo, when those other systems are essentially microcontrollers, how is "the computer" *not* "running MeeGo"? Do you say that your desktop box "isn't running Linux" because there's someone else's code running in the BIOS, the hard disk firmware, DVD drive, and Ethernet ROM?

Nate

MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo

Posted Nov 24, 2010 22:01 UTC (Wed) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link] (1 responses)

I think the discussion has wandered away from my original point, which is that putting computers in front of people who can't spare much attention for interacting with the computer is a significant new thing. Someone responded by mentioning the ECU that's been in front of drivers for ages, and I was arguing that that's not actually relevant, since it's not that sort of computer.

MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo

Posted Nov 24, 2010 23:07 UTC (Wed) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link]

Lost drivers are more at risk of an accident, and changing CDs/cassettes/radio stations is in the top 10 for distractions. So a good car computer with nav software that gives accurate directions (with plenty of time to change lanes) and a good predictive audio system could make things safer. (Turning the dashboard into a conventional PC desktop would probably make things worse.)

MeeGo conference: Intel's and Nokia's visions of MeeGo

Posted Nov 29, 2010 15:28 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Optical mice do have processors (they work by doing motion detection on an incoming video stream), just dedicated ones.