| LinuxDevices year-end review: Top hardware and software news of 2006 |
(Dec. 21, 2006)
JANUARY
TROLLTECH RENAMES, UPDATES, EXPANDS QT/EMBEDDED
Trolltech has updated and renamed its graphics toolkit and development kit for embedded Linux devices. "Qtopia Core" is based on a Linux port of the company's Qt 4.0 development framework, and replaces its earlier Qt/Embedded product. It targets "single-application products" built on embedded Linux. Additionally, the company has disclosed plans for a family of Qtopia software components targeting a wide range of device applications. Details
FREE MINI BROWSER LURES 700 MILLION MOBILE PHONES
Opera Software has announced worldwide availability of a free "mini" Web browser for mobile phones, following successful beta testing in Scandinavia. Opera Mini offers a full Web experience to some 700 million low- and mid-range phones that can run Java apps, the company says. Details
FEBRUARY
PALMSOURCE REVEALS LINUX MOBILE PHONE OS PLANS
Access subsidiary PalmSource revealed details of its Linux-based mobile phone operating system, Tuesday at 3GSM in Barcelona. Codenamed ALP (Access Linux Platform), the OS aims to provide an integrated, flexible software environment that can run legacy Palm OS application binaries, Java applications, and native Linux applications. Our special report includes a block diagram of the ALP software stack architecture, and more. Details
APRIL
ACCESS DEMOS LINUX SMARTPHONE STACK AT LINUXWORLD
Access demonstrated its Linux smartphone stack, codenamed "ALP" (Access Linux Platform), at the LinuxWorld Expo in Boston this week. Palm Infocenter published a brief article summarizing ALP's features from the perspective of Palm application developers. ALP is based on a Linux 2.6.12 kernel and filesystem assembled by PalmSource, which was acquired by Access last September. Details
FIRST 802.11N DRAFT-COMPLIANT REFERENCE DESIGNS RUN LINUX
Broadcom is shipping wireless access point and add-in card reference designs claimed to be the first to comply with the 802.11n draft specification. The Intensi-fi designs use Broadcom's Intensi-fi chipset, and include miniPCI, Cardbus, and PCI Express cards, as well as a MIPS-Linux based access point design. Details
ECLIPSE PREVIEWS DEVICE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
The Eclipse Foundation demonstrated tools of interest to embedded Linux developers, at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Jose, Calif. this week. The tools include projects from the top-level Device Software Development Project (DSDP) project, expected in June, and a preview of the next major C/C++ Development Tool release (CDT). Details
FREE, FROM-SCRATCH EMBEDDED LINUX DISTRO RESURFACES
An embedded Linux distribution aimed at helping users learn Linux by creating bootable Linux images "virtually from scratch" has achieved a new release following several years of relative obscurity. Eagle Linux 2.3 is currently distributed as a concise, 26-page PDF documenting the creation of a minimalist, network-ready Linux image for bootable CDs, floppies, or flash drives. Details
MAY
LINUX GAINS ENHANCED WIFI STACK
The day when WiFi cards "just work" under Linux may be fast approaching. WiFi software stack specialist Devicescape has released its "Advanced Datapath" 802.11 driver stack to the open source community under the GPL, and the Linux kernel developer community appears to be working to adapt it for mainline inclusion. Details
TELECOM MIDDLEWARE SUITE, TOOLS GO GPL
Telecom middleware start-up Clovis Systems has changed its name to OpenClovis, and released its entire middleware stack, tools, and test suite under the GPL. The company hopes the move will help its products reach new markets, including military, aerospace, medical, industrial, telematics, and telemetry, and reduce its R&D costs. Details
WIND RIVER PREPS REMOTE DEVICE MANAGEMENT TOOLS
Longtime embedded industry leader Wind River is preparing to ship its first products aimed at post-development device management. The company's new device management products allow device vendors to remotely monitor, diagnose, and repair deployed devices, it says. They initially target manufacturing equipment makers and network infrastructure equipment vendors. Details
JUNE
STARTUP PLANS "COMPLETE" LINUX SMARTPHONE OS
Silicon Valley startup a la Mobile plans to ship in September the industry's first "complete" Linux-based smartphone operating system. Founder Pauline Lo Alker compares the company's Convergent Linux Platform to Microsoft's Windows Mobile Smartphone platform, in terms of delivering all required software components within a single integrated stack. Details
HP UNVEILS CARRIER GRADE DEBIAN
In a move calculated to expand Carrier Grade Linux's (CGL's) developer and user communities, HP has registered Debian's "Sarge" distribution with version 2.02 of the OSDL's CGL specification, and started a Carrier Grade subproject within Debian. Debian-CGL offers an intermediary choice between commercial CGL distributions and "rolling your own," according to the OSDL. Details
FSMLABS CLAIMS FIRST CGL 3.X REGISTRATION
The OSDL's next-generation Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) specification has attracted its first registrant. Just three months after the release of the CGL 3.2 spec -- the first "registerable" release in the CGL 3.x series -- FSMLabs on June 5 completed CGL 3.2 registration for its RTCore x86-64 Enhanced Carrier Grade Linux (E-CGL). Details
EMBEDDED LINUX DEVELOPER SERVICE GAINS MAJOR TOOLS UPGRADE
TimeSys is shipping a major update to the Eclipse-based tools available with its subscription-based online service for embedded Linux developers. The LinuxLink Developer Suite, based on Eclipse 3.1 and CDT 3.0.1 (C Development Tool), is available as an add-on to existing LinuxLink customers, or as part of LinuxLink "Developer Edition." Details
LINUX 2.6.17 ADDS PERFORMANCE, WIFI FEATURES
The new 2.6.17 Linux kernel features several new system calls and ext3 features aimed at improving performance. It also features better WiFi support, and automatic detection of SMP-capable hardware, writes columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols in a summary of new features published on our sister site, Linux-Watch.com. Details
JULY
PALMSOURCE OFFERS EARLY ACCESS TO ITS LINUX PHONE STACK
Developers interested in porting applications to PalmSource's Linux implementation for mobile phones are invited to a special "PalmSource Developer Day" at this year's LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco. Attendees will receive early access to the Access Linux Platform (ALP), and get hands-on experience building applications for the platform. Details
HACKER-FRIENDLY LINUX PDA STACK ENHANCED
The OpenZaurus Project has released a new version of its Linux-based software stack for Sharp Zaurus PDAs. OpenZaurus 3.5.4.1 is based on a 2.6.16 Linux kernel, and includes some 13,000 "ready-to-install" packages. Nine Zaurus models are fully supported, while others can be updated selectively. Details
AUGUST
ACCESS FREES DATABASE FILESYSTEM FOR LINUX DEVICES
Access/PalmSource has released an SQL-based filesystem for embedded devices under the LGPL (Lesser General Public License). Libsqlfs implements a POSIX-style hierarchical filesystem as an SQLite database file, and was originally developed to provide a registry of system and application configuration data for mobile phones. Details
TROLLTECH WOOS DEVELOPERS WITH "OPEN" LINUX PHONE
Trolltech, best known for development tools and Linux application stacks for phones and other mobile devices, will ship an "open" Linux-based phone in September. The "Greenphone" features a user-modifiable Linux OS, and is meant to jumpstart a third-party native application ecosystem for Linux-based mobile phones. Details
LINUX GADGETS GAIN ONE-BUTTON WIFI SETUP
Devicescape has renamed its WiFi client software stack, and added support for a "one-button" secure WiFi configuration standard. The Devicescape Agent, formerly "Secure Wireless Client," offers a standards-based "Easy Access" feature aimed at making secure WiFi network configuration trivial for "service-enabled" consumer electronics devices such as network-ready cameras and music-players. Details
SEPTEMBER
VIA DEBUTS "CARBON-FREE" DESKTOP CPU
Via is shipping a Linux-friendly x86-compatible desktop processor, accompanied by a "Clean Computing Initiative" aimed at offsetting the chip's environmental cost. The C7-D clocks at 1.5GHz or 1.8GHz, and is shipping in an RoHS-compliant 21mm-square package. Details
OCTOBER
M-SYSTEMS MIGRATES DISKONCHIP TO OPEN-SOURCE DRIVERS
M-Systems is migrating its newest flash chips to open-source drivers. In this technical whitepaper, M-Systems provides an overview of three generations of flash technology, outlines the reliability challenges presented by the latest flash technologies, describes software techniques aimed at maximizing flash reliability, and introduces the soon-to-be-released open-source Linux drivers. Details
SUN REPORTS OPENSPARC PROGRESS
Sun says its open source RISC processor design community is gaining momentum. The "OpenSparc" project's early milestones include the addition of an UltraSparc T1 port to the 2.6.17 Linux kernel, OpenSPARC-specific Gentoo and Ubuntu distributions, a new single-core UltraSparc design, and the formation of an OpenSPARC community advisory board (CAB). Details
GPL VOIP LIBRARIES, SOFTPHONE GAIN ENHANCED SECURITY
The GNU telephony project reports that GPL-licensed implementations of two key security protocols are available for use in Linux-based VoIP (voice-over-IP) devices and softphones. Additionally, a GPL-licensed softphone based on the new implementations is already available for download, testing, and use. Details
EXT4 ENTERS EXPERIMENTAL KERNEL TREE
The next version of the venerable Linux "ext" filesystem is just around the corner. Andrew Morton has added an early version of ext4 to his 2.6.19-rc1-mm1 tree, enabling Linux to support storage volumes up to 1020 petabytes in size, and to write files in "extents," or contiguous, reserved areas. Details
LINUX KERNEL GAINS NEW REAL-TIME SUPPORT
Additional real-time technology will be incorporated into the mainline Linux kernel starting with version 2.6.18, TimeSys reports. The real-time support, which previously had to be installed as kernel patches, was developed in part by TimeSys senior open source developer Thomas Gleixner. Details
NOVEMBER
ACCESS TO OPEN-SOURCE MOBILE APP FRAMEWORK
Access will contribute a mobile application platform to the open source community before year's end, it says. Its "Application Framework" for GTK+ aims to offer device developers specialized mechanisms for package installation, task-oriented application interoperation, and security policy definition and management. It will be released under the Mozilla Public License. Details
JVM VENDOR TO OFFER FULL LINUX MOBILE PHONE STACK
Java virtual machine (JVM) specialist Aplix has licensed the Linux-based mobile phone software stack co-developed by NEC, Panasonic, and NTT DoCoMo. The company plans to offer reference implementations (RIs) based on the stack to handset manufacturers wishing to create handsets for use with NTT DoCoMo's 3G FOMA network in Japan. Details
TROLLTECH ROLLS "COMPLETE" LINUX SMARTPHONE STACK
Trolltech is readying a more comprehensive stack aimed at simplifying Linux-based phone development. The company's "Greensuite," due in Q2, will offer a menu of pre-integrated browsers, Java virtual machines, messaging clients, and other software, along with complete source code and branding flexibility. Details
ECLIPSE RELEASES NEW DEVICE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
The Eclipse Foundation has released two plug-ins aimed at making the open-source Eclipse IDE (integrated development environment) more useful to device developers, and a third has achieved a milestone pre-release, version 0.7. Two of the three need more community participation to improve their Linux support. Details
VIRTUAL MACHINE ADDED TO MAINLINE LINUX KERNEL
The 2.6.20 Linux kernel will include a driver aimed at allowing user-space processes to exploit virtualization capabilities in modern 64-bit x86 Intel and AMD processors. The KVM (kernel-based virtual machine) patch was submitted in late October by Avi Kivity, and committed by Linus Torvalds to the 2.6 tree this week. Details
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FUEL Database on MontaVista Linux
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Breaking New Ground: The Evolution of Linux Clustering
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Data Monitoring with NightStar LX
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Virtualizing Service Provider Networks with Vyatta
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High Availability Messaging Solution Using AXIGEN, Heartbeat and DRBD
This white paper discusses a high-availability messaging solution relying on the AXIGEN Mail Server, Heartbeat and DRBD. Solution architecture and implementation, as well as benefits of using AXIGEN for this setup are all presented in detail.
Understanding the Financial Benefits of Open Source
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Embedded Hardware and OS Technology Empower PC-Based Platforms
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Data Management for Real-Time Distributed Systems
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7 Advantages of D2D Backup
For decades, tape has been the backup medium of choice. But, now, disk-to-disk (D2D) backup is gaining in favor. Learn why you should make the move in this whitepaper.
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