Microsoft Auto 4.0 fine-tuned

While former releases 1.0 and 2.0 were more version developed in behalf of specific customers (Ford and Fiat), the current version 4.0 is a product developed with a higher degree of independency. Nevertheless, the software vendor claims to have taken into account numerous requirements from automotive OEMs and tier ones as potential customers.

Against earlier versions, the boot time of MS Auto 4.0 has been improved drastically, explains Microsoft customer engineering manager Reiner Gerczuk. This could be achieved by a staged boot process which in turn embraces a number of single measures: The operating environment does not need to be booted at a single blow. After having loaded a mini kernel of 2.5 MByte in minimum configuration (in more realistic configurations, about 7.5 MByte) from the NAND flash into main memory, the platform can start to do useable tasks; the remaining parts of the operating systems are loaded upon request. Responsible for this ability is the 'image file system' that enables software routines to access memory contents faster, albeit at the expense of address relocation ability. It also supports demand loading which means that DLLs and other memory blocks are loaded into the main memory only when needed.

Thus, the radio receiver integrated as a peripheral device into the Auto 4.0 environment, comes to live after less than 1 second. After 5 to 10 seconds, the environment has reached full functionality including its HMI.

Another measure to speed up the boot sequence is that the graphical subsystem is now launched at an earlier point within the sequence. Thus, cameras for driver assistance systems are available sooner. In addition, the Microsoft developers created what they call Device Parameter Store (DPS) that contains start-up and operating parameters for peripheral devices. Unlike the registry, where these parameters have been stored in earlier versions, the DPS is available immediately after the system has been powered up.