GENIVI® Alliance Announces Compliance 2.0 Approved Products

- Six New Products Approved Compliant to new GENIVI 2.0 Specification

SAN RAMON, California, June 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The GENIVI Alliance, an automotive and consumer electronics industry association driving the development and adoption of an open in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) reference platform, today announced that six new products have been approved compliant to the recently updated GENIVI Compliance 2.0 specification.

GENIVI Compliance 2.0 increases strictness by specifying more required components and moving some optional components to "required status." Because Linux software is based on modular components from multiple sources, there are often many incompatible variations between "distros" - a term used to define a tested combination of such components. GENIVI's goal is to enforce uniformity to all of the compliant distros, and also to promote innovative automotive features within each component.

Application and services developers typically have to pay attention to the exact distro they are writing software for, to be assured that the underlying component they are dependent on will be available when the application runs. GENIVI's focus is on the middleware components, not applications, so the more middleware components that are specifically defined the less effort for developers is required to build systems that works across many brands, models, and generations of cars.

Under Compliance 2.0, GENIVI defines 29 mandatory components, 23 of which are explicitly stated, with a total of 67 components overall when adding optional features. Notable in 2.0 is the requirement for a component called "systemd" along with promotion of "AudioManager" to required status.  

"Systemd" is an emerging technology for improving startup efficiency and control.  In-vehicle infotainment users (drivers and passengers) expect the system to be functioning within seconds after turning the key, unlike well-known mobile devices such as smartphones that may take minutes to start up from full power-off.  Unlike phones and PCs, cars cannot leave the infotainment system in a suspended state because the vehicle battery will run down potentially preventing the car from starting.

Additionally, this version of the specification contains no General Public License version 3 (GPLv3) components reflecting a desire by automakers to avoid licensing that is incompatible with corporate policies. To ensure transparency, GENIVI requires members to state the version of GENIVI specification they are approved for, and to recognize that the prior version 1.0 will expire on April 23, 2013, one year from the release of 2.0.

The Compliance 2.0 specification was approved by GENIVI's Board of Directors at its recently-held all-member meeting in Paris in which 500+ members registered representing the 165 member companies.

Companies with approved 2.0 compliant product offerings include: Accenture; Intel/Samsung; Mentor Graphics; MontaVista; Renesas and Wind River.  For further information on GENIVI's Compliance program, visit http://www.genivi.org/genivi-compliance-program.

Launched in August 2011, GENIVI's Compliance Program was designed to define a detailed set of technical requirements enabling member companies to qualify for OEM request for proposals requiring GENIVI compliant products.  Over the past 10 months, 19 platforms from 9 member companies have been declared compliant under GENIVI's original Compliance 1.0 program.

About GENIVI Alliance

The GENIVI Alliance is a non-profit industry association whose mission is to drive the broad adoption of an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) open source development platform.  GENIVI will accomplish this by aligning requirements, delivering reference implementations, offering certification programs and fostering a vibrant open source IVI community. GENIVI's work will result in shortened development cycles, quicker time-to-market, and reduced costs for companies developing IVI equipment and software. Comprised of more than 165 member companies, GENIVI is headquartered in San Ramon, Calif. www.genivi.org.

Media Contact- GENIVI:
Craig Miner
+1-248-840-8368
Cminer1@att.net