A powerful new force in the provision of value-added embedded engineering and consulting services

A powerful new force in the provision of value-added embedded engineering and consulting services, embedded development tools and embedded software IP has emerged today in the shape of Geensys. Privately-owned and capable of operating on a global scale, Geensys has been created through the formal merger of two of France’s most innovative and dynamic companies in the embedded market – TNI Software and Ayrton Technology.

“We are extremely excited by the creation of Geensys and the opportunity it presents,” said Serge Laverdure, the newly appointed CEO of Geensys. “We are bringing together the well-proven and highly respected skills, expertise, products and services of TNI-Software and Ayrton Technology to create a powerful new force in the embedded market. Its formation is a classic example of a new, merged company being greater than the sum of its component parts.”

Geensys brings together a broad range of complementary embedded services and products founded on a commitment to quality and backed by an extensive, well-proven track record. Geensys will offer a range of embedded development products and services on several levels, focusing on satisfying the embedded development requirements of the automotive, aerospace, defence, railway, industrial automation and telecommunications industries.

Drawing on the skills of 245 specialist engineers and the expertise built up in Ayrton Technology since its formation in 2001, Geensys will provide customers with a complete, outsourced embedded product design and realisation service covering hardware, software and mechatronic design, product prototyping, product integration, production, test and documentation generation. Geensys will also provide a customer-centric embedded projects handling and engineering capability along with a comprehensive process methodology consulting and training capability. Geensys will offer its embedded development services both through its engineering centres based in Paris, Nancy and Nantes.

On a product level and drawing on TNI-Software’s extensive product portfolio built up since its formation in 1992, Geensys will offer a range of leading-edge embedded development tools covering model-driven development and requirements-centric system engineering. These include Reqtify, ReqCenter, RTBuilder, ControlBuild and AUTOSAR Builder. Reqtify is Geensys’ flagship tool for engineering requirements capture and management as well as traceability and impact analysis, the deployment of which has been significantly broadened through successive OEM integrations agreements with ARTiSAN Software Tools, Esterel Technology, I-Logix/Telelogic, LDRA and National Instruments. ReqCenter is the first open, standards-based peer-to-peer requirements sharing and exchange tool for embedded systems development. RTBuilder is an innovative virtual analysis platform designed to simulate distributed embedded systems for the perspective of architecture exploration, performance evaluation, start-up mode analysis and scheduling. ControlBuild is a front-to-back environment for the design, development, implementation and maintenance of control systems applications both within the industrial automation and rail transportation markets. Launched this year, AUTOSAR Builder is an Eclipse-based software development platform that provides a seamless design environment for the creation of AUTOSAR compliant automotive electronics systems and ECUs. AUTOSAR Builder will be complemented by a variety of new functional test benches for automotive ECU’s including KWP2000 diagnostic, configuration and calibration tools, EOL test benches for production and a CAN-bus conformance test environment.

In a new move, Geensys also plans to tackle the emerging market for pre-packaged software IP (intellectual property) in the automotive market. Plans are already well advanced for the delivery of generic communications clusters and reusable software components for multi-function dashboard displays designed to run on a variety of industry-standard MCUs (microcontrollers). Additional software IP packages will include a CAN OSEK compliant layer stack, a FlexRay communications stack and a complete BSW stack for the AUTOSAR layered architecture with intelligent configuration tools.

Geensys’ product and services portfolio is underpinned by an ongoing commitment to quality customer service and the active support of industry standards. Courtesy of Ayrton Technology, Geensys is already certified to the Software Engineering Institute’s CMMI Level 3 following a quality assessment in June 2006 of its process and project management services. Through TNI-Software, Geensys is a Premium member of the AUTOSAR automotive consortium and together with other leading automotive partners founded the Premium Car Competitiveness Cluster for which it drives 04A, the Cluster’s first AUTOSAR-centric innovation project, in close collaboration with PSA Peugeot Citroen and Valeo. Geensys also co-administrates the DO254 User Group in the aerospace field and, as an add-in provider of the Eclipse Foundation, fronts various technology initiatives for the Eclipse embedded ecosystem both in France and Europe as a whole.

Geensys inherits an enviable customer base amongst market leading, global companies. Automotive industry customers include PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault, BMW, Delphi, Valeo, Autoliv, JCAE and Magneti Marelli. Customers in the aerospace/defence arena include Airbus Industrie, Boeing, EADS, SAFRAN, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins and Thales. Rail industry and industrial customers include Alstom, RATP and SNCF, Faiveley, Spie, EDF, Lilly and Schneider Electric. Telecommunications customers include Sagem Communications, Netgem, Philips and Wavecom.

Geensys is led by an experienced management team drawn from both TNI-Software and Ayrton Technology. Geensys is headed by Serge Laverdure formerly the President and Director General of Ayrton Technology. Marc Frouin, previously CEO of TNI-Software, steps up to become President of Geensys and Eliane Fourgeau, the former COO of TNI-Software, becomes Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

“Geensys brings together TNI-Software, one of the most innovative embedded tool suppliers, with Ayrton Technology, a highly skilled embedded engineering and services company,” continued Serge Laverdure. “Geensys stands out as a highly innovative, new, pure-play company in the embedded world with the capacity to operate on a global basis as a leading provider of embedded development tools, software IP and value-added embedded services. Geensys brings together a range of products and services whose ongoing development will significantly benefit from the practical experience of the merged skill-sets.”