OK
The Company: Open Kernel Labs' (OK) is a NICTA spin-out comoany. OK has developed technology leadership in embedded operating systems and virtualization technology which enables the development of reliable, trustworthy and affordable devices. Its team builds advanced operating systems and holds world records for micro kernel performance.
The idea
- Most modern devices, including those which used to be pure mechanical, contain microchips running software that controls the device and provides much of the functionality. Examples range from mobile phones, media devices, cars to aircraft guidance systems. With increasing functionality, the software running on such devices increases massively, to the point where it becomes comparable to desktop computer systems. At the same time, those devices are often powered by batteries, and therefore must conserve energy. This requires that their software is highly efficient.
- The highly complex software inherently contains faults which cause malfunctions, and make the device subject to external attacks and malicious code such as viruses. Ensuring reliable, safe and secure device operation has become a focus for NICTA.
- the growing functionality also creates a demand for running high-level operating systems, such as Linux or Windows. However, these operating systems are not suitable for the large amount of low-level code that is needed on such devices. Often, no single operating system satisfies all the needs of device developers.
Impact
- CDMA-based mobile phones running OKL4 have reached end users in late 2006, the first one being the Toshiba W47T handset. Present end-user deployments are estimated to be in the tens of millions, with GSM and UMTS handsets expected to appear in 2008.
- OKL4 is under evaluation by a number of chipset makers and device manufacturers, and deployments beyond the mobile-phone space are expected in the future
- OKL4 is distributed under an open-source license, which eases evaluation and makes it an attractive teaching platform. Most commercial deployments require a proprietary license.
More information..........
- The NICTA research approach
- Validation and commercial potential analysis
- Management and marketing support
- Seed funding
- Spinning out
- NICTA research team has developed highly-efficient operating-system technology that provides internal firewalls which can contain faulty behaviour of a subsystem without damaging the rest of this system. This helps device developers to achieve better reliability, safety and security.
- The resulting new operating system, called L4/Iguana, is based on a microkernel. This means that only a small amount of code (orders of magnitudes less than in conventional operating systems) runs with maximum privileges. That way, the part of the system that cannot recover from failures is minimised.
- L4/Iguana also provides hardware virtualization, which allows running several different operating system on the same processor.
Validation and commercial potential analysis
- The commercial competitiveness of L4/Iguana was demonstrated when Qualcomm, a leading producer of wireless communication chips, started to use the system in their products.
- As a result, the NICTA team worked on developing their research system into an industrial-strength platform.
- A market validation was conducted which showed that there was significant commercial potential in the mobile wireless space and beyond.
Management and marketing support
- NICTA supported the team through its innovative Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program whereby an experienced entrepreneur was assigned to the team. One of the initial EIRs subsequently became Chief Executive of the resulting spin out company called Open Kernel Labs (OK).
- A large number of NICTA staff and students joined the company and commenced work on turning L4/Iguana into a product, now called OKL4.
- NICTA’s close relationship with the University of New South Wales provided a further source of highly-competent employees which allowed OK to grow its engineering team quickly.
- NICTA’S internal legal and marketing teams provided targeted advice and guidance to the team during the development of its business plan and branding.
- NICTA supported the research team through the provision of lab facilities and the hiring of additional engineers prior to spinout.\
- The unique nature of OKL4 meant it began generating revenue as soon as it was released, which allowed the team to continue development work without the need of an investor.
- Open Kernel Labs was officially spun out from NICTA in August 2006. NICTA supported OK by providing interim accommodation and access to researchers on a consulting basis.
- NICTA is a minority shareholder in the company and has entered into a joint venture, under which NICTA continues to conduct relevant research, the outcomes of which are licensed to OK for commercialisation.
- The company recently raised $US 2.15 million in a first-round funding agreement with Australian-based venture capital firm Neo Technology Ventures. These funds will underpin expansion of sales, marketing and distribution services in North America, Europe and Asia. OK has also signed up a distributor and training provider in Korea.