The Bottom Line: Evaluating the Quality of Embedded Operating Systems

Date:	Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Time:	1 pm EDT (10am PDT, 17:00 GMT
Duration:	1 hour
Registration:	www.techonline.com

Description
There is considerable evidence that modular system design and "componentization" results in higher quality software. A modular design has low coupling among its components and high cohesion within its components. This is the case because modular designs are less complex, contain less code and are cognitively simpler for designers and programmers to understand and modify. In addition to having performance and extensibility advantages, using a modular or microkernel architecture makes the OS more reliable and more secure. Microkernel architecture offers two core mechanisms that set it apart from other architecture choices to provide a solid foundation for reliability, performance, shortened development cycles, and increased scalability, ultimately leading to lower development and production costs.

Dr. Khaled EL Emam, Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, will evaluate the modularity of the QNX® Neutrino® real-time operating system compared to a recent version of a real-time Linux kernel. Conducted through an analysis based on existing evidence, Dr. El Emam will examine why a modular kernel architecture presents a higher quality system than a monolithic kernel as related to the quality of system structure and cost - the bottom line.

Estimated Length: 1 hour, including Q & A.

Who should Attend: Members of the embedded systems community who are interested in maximizing quality of system structure while minimizing costs related to development time: directors, executives, engineers, software designers, team and test leads.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this session.

Speaker Biography
Dr. El Emam is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine with a cross-appointment in the School of Information Techonology and Engineering, and a Canada Research Chair in Electronic Health Information. Previously he was a senior research officer at the National Research Council of Canada, where he was the technical lead of the Software Quality Laboratory, and prior to that he was head of the Quantitative Methods Group at the Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering in Kaiserslautern, Germany. In both of these latter roles he was working on the development of predictive models of software quality, and on developing and evaluating audits of software processes to ensure good project outcomes. In 2003 and 2004, Khaled was ranked as the top systems and software engineering scholar worldwide by the Journal of Systems and Software based on his research on measurement and quality evaluation and improvement, and ranked second in 2002 and 2005. Khaled has more than 120 publications in the areas of software engineering and health informatics, and is the current president of the Ottawa Software Quality Association. He holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, King's College, at the University of London (UK).

About QNX Software Systems
QNX Software Systems, a Harman International company (NYSE: HAR), is the industry leader in realtime, embedded OS technology. The component-based architectures of the QNX® Neutrino® RTOS and QNX Momentics® development suite together provide the industry's most reliable and scalable framework for building innovative, high-performance embedded systems. Global leaders such as Cisco, DaimlerChrysler, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, and Siemens depend on QNX technology for network routers, medical instruments, vehicle telematics units, security and defense systems, industrial robotics, and other mission- or life-critical applications. Founded in 1980, QNX Software Systems is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and distributes products in over 100 countries worldwide.

Register to view this web seminar.