Accelerating Automation with Tria Technologies

Tria Technologies, an Avnet company, partnered with Witekio to automate the development and delivery of software across multiple hardware platforms. By streamlining the build, test, and deployment processes, Witekio delivered a scalable solution that reduced manual effort and increased operational efficiency.
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Tria Technologies

Tria is a world leader in design and manufacturing of embedded computing. It helps OEMs to embed compute capabilities into their products of all shapes and sizes. Tria is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Avnet, leveraging Avnet’s family of businesses and linecard suppliers to fulfil a broad range of secondary customer needs including component sourcing, software design, display solutions, server and datacentre solutions, cloud and IoT infrastructure.
Embedded computing
Industry
tria-technologies.com
website
Witekio services highlight
  • automated build pipeline design
  • automated testing framework implementation
  • CI/CD pipeline setup
Cédric Vincent - Tria
Cédric Vincent

Head of Software Techology Lab

Witekio’s expertise in embedded systems and DevOps was instrumental in transforming our software development process. Their automation solutions significantly reduce manual work for our end customers and allowed us to scale effortlessly while maintaining high-quality, validated systems. The collaboration has been seamless, and the results speak for themselves.

Witekio in action

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Challenges

Tria required a robust solution to support the delivery of BSPs across a wide range of hardware architectures and development frameworks. The existing process of manually building BSPs and testing software configurations was time-consuming and prone to errors. Tria’s goal was to create a standardized, automated approach that would allow their customers to seamlessly integrate their own applications. By streamlining software development, Tria aimed to help their customers accelerate time-to-market and reduce the complexity of working with diverse hardware platforms.

Key challenges included:

  • Supporting five different hardware architectures.
  • Managing over 160 repositories of code.
  • Creating automated pipelines to ensure smooth integration of customer applications.
  • Ensuring that all builds and tests were conducted with minimal manual intervention.

Solution 1: Automation of Build Processes

Witekio created a custom automated build pipeline for Tria using the Yocto Project, designed to handle the complexity of multiple hardware architectures and configurations.

Tria needed to support five different hardware platforms, each requiring its own BSP. This process was traditionally done manually, which increased the risk of errors and slowed down the development cycle. By implementing Yocto Linux as the backbone of the build system, Witekio automated the configuration, building, and updating of the BSPs.

Key features of this build automation included:

  • BitBake Integration: Witekio used BitBake, a build tool commonly used with Yocto, to handle the complex configurations. This allowed for simultaneous management of multiple platforms, reducing build times and ensuring consistency across projects.

 

  • Modular Frameworks: The solution was designed to accommodate a range of development frameworks such as Qt, Flutter, and web applications. Each of these frameworks was pre-configured within the build system, allowing customers to choose the appropriate one based on their project needs.

 

  • Efficient Scaling: With over 160 code repositories involved, the automation solution was built to scale efficiently, handling new BSP configurations or platform updates without additional manual effort.

2. Testing Automation

One of the biggest challenges for Tria was ensuring that each BSP and software stack worked flawlessly across different hardware platforms. Witekio addressed this by integrating an automated testing framework as part of the build pipeline, ensuring that no configuration was deployed without being fully validated.

Key components of the testing automation included:

  • Unit and Integration Testing: Every BSP and software configuration went through a rigorous testing process that included unit tests (to validate individual components) and integration tests (to ensure the components work together).

 

  • Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Testing: Certain tests required hardware validation, especially for platform-specific functionalities. Where possible, these hardware-based tests were automated to ensure rapid verification, while certain configurations were prepped for manual testing to guarantee high precision.

 

  • Continuous Testing Loop: As part of the continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, Witekio established a continuous testing loop that automatically tested new updates and patches before integration. This ensured that all dependencies and configurations were continuously validated, providing Tria with up-to-date, secure systems.

3. Pipeline Automation

The cornerstone of Witekio’s solution was the automation of the entire development pipeline—from the initial code commit to the final deployment of the BSPs and software images. This pipeline was built to handle multiple frameworks and architectures seamlessly, ensuring speed, accuracy, and consistency.

Key features of the pipeline automation included:

  • CI/CD Pipeline Setup: A robust CI/CD pipeline was established to automate builds, testing, and deployments. This ensured that new code commits were immediately built and tested, and validated images and SDKs were automatically deployed to Tria’s public repositories.

 

  • Automated Documentation: In addition to building and testing software, the pipeline automatically generated documentation for each build, ensuring that Tria’s customers received up-to-date technical information with every deployment.

 

  • Dependency Management and Updates: The pipeline also automated the handling of software dependencies. As new versions of external libraries (like Qt or Flutter) were released, the system automatically pulled these updates, ran tests, and integrated them into the build if validated. This continuous integration of updates ensured that Tria’s software was always current without requiring manual intervention from developers.

4. Collaboration and Continuous Improvement

A key aspect of the Tria-Witekio partnership was the close collaboration between teams. Unlike traditional client-vendor relationships, as Witekio is also an Avnet company, this project was even more collaborative, with a joint team of both companies, working in frequent iterations and adjustments based on real-time feedback.

Key elements of the collaboration included:

  • Agile Methodology: The teams worked in short, iterative cycles, reviewing progress every two to three weeks. This allowed both Tria and Witekio to address challenges quickly, implement improvements, and ensure alignment with project goals.

 

  • Cross-Team Expertise: Witekio’s engineers worked closely with Tria’s internal technical team, offering expertise in DevOps, embedded software, and hardware development. This cross-pollination of knowledge helped both teams stay agile and responsive to emerging needs.

 

  • Ongoing Optimization: Throughout the project, Witekio continued to optimize the automation process, introducing new tools and methods as they became available. This continuous improvement model ensured that Tria’s automation pipeline remained at the cutting edge of embedded development technology.

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The results

The implementation of Witekio’s solution brought significant operational improvements for Tria:

  • Efficiency Gains: The automation reduced the time spent on manual builds and testing, freeing up engineering resources for more strategic tasks.

 

  • Scalability: Tria can now support a growing range of hardware platforms and application frameworks, with the ability to scale quickly as new configurations are added.

 

  • Customer Satisfaction: Tria’s customers benefit from a streamlined process where they can easily integrate their applications, knowing that the BSPs and underlying systems are fully validated and up-to-date.

 

  • Continuous Updates: Automation has allowed for seamless updates, with new software versions and security patches being integrated automatically without disrupting customer workflows.

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