Wind River to power wind farm
Embedded software provider Wind River Systems, announces that its operating system will control a new fleet of Danish wind-powered electricity generators.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
The Horns Rev wind farm, built on a reef about 12 miles west of the Danish mainland, consists of 80 wind turbines, power-generating windmills 360 feet tall. Each turbine has five processors, which run Wind River's VxWorks operating system to control the windmill's gearbox; to measure vibrations; to adjust the orientation of the windmill blades; and to handle communications to the outside world using an Ethernet network.
The farm is expected to supply 2 percent of Denmark's energy and can produce enough power for 150,000 households, Wind River said.
Wind River competes with a number of embedded software specialists, with Linux companies such as Red Hat and
While Linux started as a hobbyists' project, it's grown to be a commercial product of late. Verano, a company that specializes in software for power plants, water distribution systems, factory floors and other critical industrial tasks, has begun backing Linux.
Although Wind River has flirted with open-source software, it has never got involved with Linux. Jerry Fiddler, Wind River's chairman and co-founder, argues in a white paper that there are legal concerns about mixing proprietary software with a Linux foundation.
Wind River's software runs computers in everything from nerve gas detectors to Formula One race cars.