Ricoh licenses Indian startup to tweak components

Ricoh, a global leader in imaging devices, has inked an agreement with Vayavya Labs, a startup based here, for tweaking the performances of its devices using Vayavya's DDGen system.

DDGen generates device drivers for different operating systems. A driver is a tiny piece of software that tells the operating system and other software how to chat with a piece of hardware.

For example, all printers come with drivers to install, which tell the operating system exactly how to print information on the page, according to a press release of Vayavya Labs.

Sound card drivers tell your software exactly how to translate data into audio signals that the card can output to a set of speakers. The same applies to video cards, keyboards, monitors, etc.

Ricoh will be using DDGen for different peripherals present in their products, such as USB (universal serial bus) host/device controllers, network controller, flash memory devices, etc.

The licensing engagement follows a positive recommendation from an earlier study by Ricoh that looked into various aspects of the DDGen methodology - including quality of the generated code.

With proliferation of chips in daily life, we all make use of device drivers knowingly or unknowingly. Take the example of apps on your mobile, tablet, your interaction with TV, set-top box and in your smart cars, etc.

All these are controlled by some form of electronics, coupled with sensors and a central computing engine called SoC or micro-controller, which includes an entire system embedded on a single chip.

Vayavya Labs, a Bangalore-based startup, is bringing a technology and tool which can help in automation of drivers for Ricoh.

Naoya Morita from Ricoh, Japan, said: "We have been searching some tools like DDGen to cut down cost, time and effort while meeting the time-to-market demands. We are encouraged by the early results shown by DDGen."

"An automation tool like DDGen can help in bringing up to 10-fold productivity improvements for device drivers. We are happy to see a major embedded platform firm Ricoh endorsing the benefits," R.K. Patil, Vayavya Labs CEO, said.