nir-vana innovation network

An ICT company from northwestern Poland operates in the electronics industry and specialises in the embedded systems, microprocessor technologies and reprogrammable systems. The firm was founded in 2004 and over time has built a network of contacts and customers, both domestic and international (German companies, especially). Their staff has been growing steadily and now the company employs over 70 engineers and developers.

The firm offers to design and develop embedded systems. Their team of specialists in the field of software development and digital technologies can:
- design whole embedded devices and microprocessor modules;
- customise operating systems and integrate them with devices;
- create hardware drivers for operating systems;
- design and develop software for embedded systems;
- develop independent programs or board support packages (BSP) for a device created by a partner.
In their work, they use platforms such as ARM, Cortex, M32R and ColdFire.

They are also ready to test and optimise devices or systems in order to:
- expose defects in the interfaces and in the interactions between integrated components or systems (modules);
- verify whether a system has specific properties, meets particular requirements and satisfies acceptance criteria.

The company is interested in focusing its operations on the embedded systems for vehicle engines. For this reason, and due to a limited local market, it is offering cooperation under the subcontracting agreement to manufacturers of vehicle engines and companies that use vehicle engines in their products (automakers, shipyards, manufacturers of locomotives). The former are expected to specify what kind of works are required (designing, developing or testing the embedded system), supply the engine and/or its blueprints, stipulate expected properties and functionalities of the system, and to provide any other vital information. The latter will have the same responsibilities and, in addition, they will have to get the company in touch with the engine supplier, so that the two can cooperate in making the best product possible. In both cases, the firm will be responsible for carrying the ordered works out.

Advantages & innovations

- experienced personnel; - ability to design and develop a solution for any client due to their knowledge of multiple instruction set architectures (including ARM, Cortex, PowerPC, 68K, V850, MIPS, TriCore, StarCore, x86, AVR32, M32R, QDSP, C6xxx), operating systems (WindowsCE, Linux, SCIOPTA), communication protocols (including CAN, SAE J1939, ModBus, Ethernet, USB) and variety of software tools used for program development (including Trace32, compilers DIAB, GCC, Keil environment, Rhapsody, CodeComposer, IAR, PlatformBuilder); - comprehensivity of the tests they carry out, thanks to the variety of testing methods their ISTQB-certified engineers use (including path analysis, equivalence class testing, boundary testing, syntax testing, functional and non-functional testing, software performance testing, regression testing, installation testing, graphical user interface testing, software performance testing, regression testing, security testing) and high-end software tools they employ (National Instruments Teststand, Vector CANalyzer and CANoe, Classification Tree Editor, Lauterbach Trace32, MSC-Ge Hpe-JTAG).

Stage of development

POLAND

Partner sought

Type of partner sought: vehicle engine producers and manufacturers of vehicles (companies operating in the automotive sector, shipyards, manufacturers of locomotives). Role of partner sought: - Vehicle engine producers will be responsible for providing the company with all the information that is necessary to design, develop and test the embedded system, especially its expected properties and desired functionalities. - Expectations regarding automakers, shipyards and locomotive builders are similar, they will have to specify what kind of works are required (designing, developing or testing the embedded system) and stipulate expected properties and functionalities of the system. Additionally, their role is to get the company in touch with the engine supplier so that the two can collaborate.