Wind River (News - Alert), a subsidiary of Intel and provider of embedded and mobile software, announced partnership with Leadcore Technology, a China-based solution provider of TD-SCDMA mobile phone and mobile terminals, to develop a new Android (News - Alert) system-on-chip (SoC) smartphone platform.
Over the past few years, Leadcore has made a focused effort on Android smartphone solutions for TD/GGE multi-mode.
A core member of Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group, Leadcore has offered its new ARM9-based SoC platform and will launch its Cortex-A9 vision later this year. These developments are aimed at further driving the adoption of low-cost Android smartphones in regional markets, according to company officials.
The company was searching for a trusted partner with Android experience who could help them navigate through the complexities of Android development and testing, including Android compliance, said Sun Yuwang, president of Leadcore.
"Wind River has the proven Android expertise and deep knowledge of Chinese operator requirements. Being able to leverage the combination of both was essential for our success," Yuwang added.
As part of this partnership, Leadcore implemented Wind River's testing software to test the smartphone platform for software quality, performance and compliance with the Android Compatibility Test Suite (CTS (News - Alert)).
Wind River, in association with Leadcore, worked from the ground up to port and enable Android on Leadcore's SoC platform to help overcome technical challenges around performance optimization, and customize Android to take advantage of Leadcore's specific SoC capabilities.
Jerry Ashford, vice president and general manager of mobile solutions at Wind River, said, "Wind River can help customers enter desirable regional markets quickly with high-quality Android devices certified on local operator networks.”
"Wind River provides a reliable commercial-quality Android platform that allows customers to tackle complex and expensive engineering obstacles such as integration and testing to meet tight deadlines and stay on budget," Ashford added.
Through this partnership, Leadcore is able to take advantage of the hardware abstraction layer test suite within Wind River Framework for Automated Software Testing (FAST (News - Alert)). It can focus on low-level software development and board support package hardening.
The FAST technology also allows Leadcore to streamline its software testing process using a layered approach. Wind River FAST helps validate software quality on other layers and executes automated application-driven stress tests and performance tests.
Wind River FAST for Android is a comprehensive automated software testing solution for Android-based devices. As a result of this partnership, Wind River also provided Leadcore with its world-class support and services.
Earlier this year, Wind River announced updated versions of its Wind River Platform for Android and Wind River Framework for Automated Software Testing for Android "to help developers deliver Android devices to market quickly and reliably."
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Stefanie Mosca