IBM has published the following new technical articles, tutorials, and downloads on its DeveloperWorks website. They cover a range of interesting (though not necessarily embedded) technical topics, primarily related to Linux and open source system development. Some require free registration. Enjoy . . . !

• Open BIOSes for Linux — On many systems, a large portion of boot time goes into providing legacy support for MS-DOS. Various projects, including LinuxBIOS and Open Firmware, are trying to replace the proprietary BIOS systems with streamlined pieces of code able to do only what is necessary to get a Linux kernel loaded and running. Learn how to get the kernel loaded without waiting for the BIOS to do a lot of the setup that the kernel is about to do — and do faster, better, and probably more reliably.
• Open Source Robotics Toolkits — Robot simulators can greatly simplify the job of building physical robots. Through simulators, you can test ideas and strategies before putting them into hardware. Luckily, the Linux and open source communities have several options that save you time and money, and can even support direct linkage to hardware platforms. This article introduces you to some of the open source robotics toolkits for Linux, demonstrates their capabilities, and helps you decide which is best for you.
• Get to Know NetBSD — NetBSD runs on more hardware platforms than any other UNIX derivative due to smart design decisions and a commitment to portable code. For porting an operating system to a proprietary embedded system or looking for stability and compatibility across hardware platforms in the lab, the smart choice is NetBSD. In addition, learn why its open license is a compelling alternative to Linux and the GNU Public License.
• Five More Engineering Hints You'll Rarely Hear — In this article, I cast before you another five pearls of wisdom, focusing more on smaller companies without the overhead, or support structures, of a larger organization. For more less commonly states yet invaluable hints check out the previous installment in the Don't let these disasters happen to you series, targeted at embedded engineers in larger corporations.
• Create a commercial-quality Eclipse plug-in — Develop IDEs as plug-ins for any of the existing programming languages or your own language. Learn the two most important parts of the IDEs, — the core and the user interface (UI) — and take a look at the problems associated with designing and implementing them. In this tutorial, learn how to create the core of the IDE.
• Three UNIX utilities that deliver the entire Internet — UNIX provides hundreds, if not thousands, of commands with which you can manipulate a large variety of resources available in the kernel and user space. Martin Streicher, Editor-in-Chief, Linux Magazine, looks at three essential UNIX utilities that deliver the entire Internet to your command line.
• Helpful Hints for Porting Fortran Applications — This article addresses the most commonly encountered scenarios and errors while porting Fortran or any UNIX or Linux-based applications on different systems. Discover how to port Fortran-based High Performance Computing applications, such as computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling, weather modeling, and linear algebra packages, using IBM XL compilers and gnu compilers on large clusters.
• Blank Screen Horror — Nearly everyone knows that horrible, sinking realization that something's gone wrong. The file you saved isn't there, or at least it isn't where you thought it was. The machine just rebooted and there's a little dialog box saying that the disk isn't recognized, would you like to initialize it? Most of you know what happens next: you do the one thing that guarantees that the data stays lost. You do something hasty, something stupid. In short, you panic. Find some fool-proof solutions to the computer-borne panic attack and calm direction of What to do when the screen goes blank. (Hint: You won't find these in the manual.)
• What is Grid Computing and why its important now — This is a new guide to start learning about the benefits grid computing can offer. It highlights the basics of grid computing in their proper context, and ties together relevant articles, tutorials, tips, and Grid workshops. It collects information about grid computing into an intuitive framework, tying the pieces together and highlighting the important details.

 
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