MontaVista unveils Embedded Linux for consumer electronics

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Jan. 08, 2003

Las Vegas; CES -- (press release excerpt) -- MontaVista Software today announced a new push into the consumer electronics market with the introduction of the MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.0 and the unveiling of a broad partner ecosystem of semiconductor, software application, and middleware partners for device solution components.

As part of its comprehensive consumer electronics strategy, MontaVista today announced MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.0 (CEE), the first Linux operating system and cross-development environment specifically designed for consumer electronics applications. This new product -- part of the MontaVista Linux family of products -- enhances Linux with dynamic power management, rich consumer-focused networking support and consumer-grade reliability.

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition (CEE) enhances Linux with dynamic power management, rich consumer-focused networking support, and consumer-grade reliability. It is designed specifically to address the needs of consumer electronics device manufacturers, and forms the foundation of solution stacks from software partners in key mobile, home, and automotive vertical markets.

CEE targets consumer device-oriented processors, and will initially support the TI OMAP 1510/5910 (and the associated Innovator Development Kit) and the IBM PowerPC 405LP (and the associated Arctic II Reference Board), with rich support of integrated peripherals and with power management enabled for all drivers. Other processer architectures and platforms will be supported in the future.

CEE is tailored to the demands of highly constrained mobile devices, which require low power consumption, restricted memory size, and short boot and resume times. In addition to the complete cross development environment that MontaVista provides with all of its three Linux Editions (the other two being MontaVista Linux Professional Edition and MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition), CEE adds new developer tools for tuning system performance to enable a higher quality end-user experience.

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition, based on MontaVista-licensed as well as open source software, is application-compatible with and incorporates all the benefits of the MontaVista flagship systems software product, MontaVista Linux Professional Edition. CEE includes the fully preemptible MontaVista Linux kernel and real-time scheduling, small footprint targets, and flash-based journaling file systems.

CEE incorporates dynamic power management features, file system enhancements, and new tools to measure performance, system timing, and memory size. CEE also features support for XIP (eXecute In Place) in the kernel and applications, as well as streaming media optimizations. It integrates with consumer market middleware such as the J9 Java Virtual Machine, and graphics packages such as QT/E from Trolltech or MontaVista Software's own MontaVista Graphics. CEE also supports a vast matrix of best-in-class application packages for consumer markets.

Third-party partner ecosystem

Additionally, MontaVista announced a third-party partnership program through which semiconductor, software application, middleware, and systems integration companies will join with MontaVista to provide solutions for device manufacturers in key markets including mobile and wireless, television and home entertainment, and automotive telematics.

The MontaVista Partner Program already includes the following companies and product categories . . .

Access, Opera Software, Phoenix Technologies, Websoft and Zentek for device web browsers
IBM for end-to-end device management and advanced power management
InterVideo for Linux-based DVD playing software
Macrovision for digital rights and license management
IP Infusion for routing protocol stack
Solid and PointBase for embedded databases
Tao Group for its multimedia engine
Hughes Software for VoIP and SIP stacks
Omron Software for Japanese input
BMR and MasterIA for Chinese fonts and input
MasterIA for Korean fonts and input
CodeHost with its printing suite
Open Interface for its certified Bluetooth stack
ProSyst for its open and scalable service delivery platform
Movial for its rich embedded Instant Communication software
Liberate with its Digital TV middleware

Dozens of additional partnerships that will be announced over the coming months will enrich the ecosystem and continue to give developers a wide array of components to choose from, all of which have been validated with MontaVista Linux.

"These extensive collaborative efforts offer OEMs complete hardware/software solutions, which will both speed time-to-market and lower total development costs for the next generation of consumer and home electronics devices," said Sheila Baker, vice president, marketing, MontaVista Software. "These partnerships will help consumer electronics companies leverage a wealth of applications and meet the high productivity and low power requirements of new consumer devices with more complex functionality."

Expertise in the consumer electronics market

"MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition builds on our expertise in embedded Linux and our experience in the consumer electronics market," said Jim Ready, president and CEO, MontaVista Software. "The world's top four global consumer electronics companies are MontaVista customers. In addition, several global consumer electronics companies, including Sony, Panasonic (Matsushita), Toshiba America, and Yamaha have taken equity positions in MontaVista, which demonstrates a strong validation of our vision for Linux-powered next-generation digital consumer products."

More than 100 consumer electronics devices manufacturers are already using MontaVista Linux in products as varied as mobile phones, PDAs, personal video recorders, set-top boxes, high-definition televisions, home theater remote controls, advanced DVD players, Karaoke machines, and automotive communications solutions.

"Consumer electronics products are evolving from simple, single function appliances into complex, network-connected devices," said Stephen Balacco, embedded systems analyst at Venture Development Corporation. "The expanded functionality of these products will increasingly require high performance hardware and a 32-bit robust multitasking operating system such as Linux."

Complementary Product Offerings -- Java and Graphics

To address growing demand for embedded Java, MontaVista has partnered with IBM over the past two years to design, create, build and test a Java runtime environment that addresses the needs of today's embedded applications. MontaVista provides a complete embedded Java developer's package fully certified to the J2ME standard across all architectures supported by MontaVista Linux, delivering industry-leading features and performance to meet the requirements for Java enabled embedded systems. The single Java implementation delivered by MontaVista is based on the well-known WebSphere Studio products from IBM.

Designing graphics for the variety of embedded devices for which MontaVista Linux CEE has been designed requires powerful tools, flexible graphics functionality, and close integration with the architecture and platform being used. To address the growing demand by developers of consumer devices, MontaVista delivers a full graphics environment with state-of-the-art graphics tools and libraries to enable developers to create graphics solutions for a wide variety of products. Built with the best open source technology available today, MontaVista Graphics combines a diverse set of components into a single, fully tested and supported graphics development toolkit. MontaVista also offers Qt/Embedded built, tested, and supported specifically for MontaVista Linux Professional Edition. Based on the popular Qt API Qt/Embedded provides a small-footprint implementation designed to meet the needs of the next generation of consumer devices.

Availability

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.0 will be available in the first quarter of 2003. Offered as a product subscription, it will provide customers with the MontaVista Linux kernel, software updates, utilities, development tools, access to the MontaVista Zone, and full technical support.

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