Responding to a clamoring for decisive action, the Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) has completed, approved, and released the first Embedded Linux Platform Specification prior to year-end 2002, as projected earlier this year. From the ELC's website: “In a unanimous vote, our Board of Directors has placed the ELCPS — Embedded Linux Consortium Platform Specification — into the public domain. (more…)

NE Asia Online reports on comments made by Hidetaka Fukuda, CTO for Japan's Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, Director of IT-Industry Division, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, at “Open Source Way 2002,” a conference held in Yokohama on Dec. 20, 2002. According to the article, Fukuda said: “An OS should be an open-source OS such as Linux and TRON, and semiconductors should have… (more…)

This article, which is part of a series on “High-performance programming techniques on Linux and Windows” at IBM's developerWorks website, looks at two behaviors of the scheduler. The first is the reaction to adding more choices to the scheduler's switching decision. The second demonstrates fairness, by performing a uniform workload in multiple threads. (more…)

Sharp Electronics Corp. has re-launched their Zaurus PDA developer website, now known as “Zaurus DevNet.” It includes web-based forums, documentation, software development kit (SDK), and Zaurus ROM image downloads, and has its own SourceForge-based software development center, providing bug tracking, task management, mailing list hosting, source code control (CVS), and file storage and archival. (more…)

In this short technical article, Bao C. Ha explains how to squeeze Debian GNU/Linux (and other OSS software) into a 32MB CompactFlash on the OpenBrick-E, a small, fanless, computer system with three built-in Ethernet interfaces. The goal is to create a low-cost, appliance-like VPN/firewall/router system, with the three network interfaces partitioned into Internet, DMZ, and local LAN. (more…)

I started Hacom in November of 2002 to distribute the OpenBrick hardware platforms in the US. OpenBrick is a new kind of low-cost fan-less small computer targeting the Open Source / Free Software community, mainly Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD. (more…)

Framingham, MA — (press release excerpt) — Wireless LANs, Linux, and messaging are all poised to make important gains in the year ahead. Meanwhile, project-based IT services and 64-bit computing will face ongoing challenges in 2003. These are just a few of the prognostications from IDC's sixth annual Predictions telebriefing. (more…)

This article on IBM's developerWorks website takes a look at SimPy, a Python package that allows you to easily create models of discrete event systems. There is some novelty involved in the way we think about this style of programming, but simulations are useful for understanding the behavior of resource-limited real-life systems. (more…)

Introspection reveals useful information about your program's objects. Python, a dynamic, object-oriented programming language, provides tremendous introspection support. This article from IBM's developerWorks website covers its capabilities, including python's on-line help utility, the sys module, the keyword module, the dir() function, documentation strings, interrogating python objects, and… (more…)

LinuxDevices.com is pleased to publish the proceedings from the Fourth Real-Time Linux Workshop held December 6-7, 2002 in Boston, MA at the Computer Science Department, Boston University. The conference was organized by the Real-Time Linux Foundation. (more…)

theKompany.com has announced their latest product for the Sharp Zaurus Linux based PDA. “tkcPhone” is a Voice over IP (VoIP) application that allows you to use your Zaurus as a phone, either to make free calls between computers, or to make PC to phone calls through an exchange like Net2Phone. (more…)

LinuxDevices.com is pleased to publish the proceedings from the Fourth Real-Time Linux Workshop held December 6-7, 2002 in Boston, MA at the Computer Science Department, Boston University. The conference was organized by the Real-Time Linux Foundation. 26 of the papers are available as PDF downloads from LinuxDevices.com. Enjoy . . . (more…)

In this guest editorial, Richard Sevenich addresses a perceived need that has arisen with the rather sudden proliferation of embedded systems that deploy full fledged operating systems, such as Linux. The intent is to initiate a discussion in hopes of eventually meeting the perceived need. (more…)

UCSD Extension is offering the “Embedded Linux” course starting 1/8/2003 for nine Wednesday evenings as course ECE-40105 at their North County campus location. The prerequisites include having a running Linux system that you understand. (more…)

The Consultants Network of the San Diego section of the IEEE will be hosting a one-evening introduction to Debian Linux, with the goal to get attendees understanding the installation process and basic administration. The session will be on Monday 13th January starting 7pm at the Sizzler. (more…)