The competition between Microsoft and Open Source software reaches into the automotive space with the announcement of a new alliance amongst automakers and technology providers called Genivi. The goal of the alliance is to build a Linux stack that will provide a common architecture for automotive infotainment systems.
At the same time, Microsoft announces version 4.0 of its own automotive platform, on which Ford's Sync and Fiat's Blue & Me systems are based. The new Microsoft platform now supports Intel chip architecture and includes what Microsoft calls "common head unit funcationaliy", meaning the platform comes with standard modules for integrating CD playback and ripping, along with other applications.
|