HelloSoft will demonstrate a VoIP phone reference design running on an ARM DSP-enhanced RISC CPU core at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco this week. The reference design software is said to implement a complete IP phone suite, including voice codec and protocols, running on an embedded Linux operating system. (more…)

[Updated 9:20am PDT] — As reported earlier, Wakamaru, an experimental Linux-powered humanoid robot developed by Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is making a guest appearance at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) held this week in San… (more…)

Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. announced a new ARM-based RISC system-on-chip processor for networking devices and applications. The chip integrates a 150 MHz ARM926EJ-S CPU along with dual Ethernet MACs and controllers for PCI bus, distributed DMA, and SDRAM memory interface. (more…)

Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. announced a new 64-bit RISC system-on-chip processor targeting “digital information device” applications. The device runs at up to 300 MHz clock rates and includes a pair of 10/100 Base-T Ethernet MACs, a NAND Flash memory interface, a dual UART, and more, the company said. (more…)

NEC Electronics announced reference boards for its MPEG-2 encoder/decoder (CODEC) chips. The boards feature NEC's uPD61151/152 MPEG-2 audio/video codecs, which integrate an audio encoder, video encoder, 32-bit V85 microcontroller core, and PCI bus interface onto a single die. NEC said the reference boards include support for Video for Linux Two (V4L2) and Windows CE based operation. (more…)

[Updated 3:20 pm] — Core Sound announced a new CompactFlash card that is said to enable PDAs, notebooks, and desktop PCs to perform high quality digital audio recording functions. The new Type I (extended) CompactFlash DAT card provides optical and coaxial inputs and comes with support for mobile devices running embedded… (more…)

The Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) announced the appointment of its first full-time Chief Executive Officer. Stuart F. Cohen, the new OSDL CEO, said his top objectives will be to: accelerate the use of Linux and Linux-based applications; increase the number of sponsors and attract new Global 2000 corporations to join OSDL; and continue and expand OSDL's leadership role in championing Linux-based… (more…)

An announcement from David Sugar, project leader of GNU Bayonne . . .

With this notification, we are distributing a new stable release, 1.2.0, of GNU Bayonne, the telephony server of the GNU project. This new release is meant to bring many of the recent enhancements of the 1.1 development releases of GNU… (more…)

Ever wonder what the 7-layer open system interconnect (OSI) network model is all about? This two-part technical article at EEdesign.com is meant to demystify the OSI model, once and for all. Quoting from the introduction . . . (more…)

bargainPDA.com has published an extensive — and very objective — review of Sharp's new upgrade to its original Zaurus Linux PDA (the SL-5600), written by a newcomer to PDA use. From the introduction . . .

“The new Zaurus SL-5600 from Sharp is a linux-based PDA with a 400MHz Intel XScale (PXA250) CPU. The street… (more…)

Rob Wehrli will be presenting a session on Porting, Debugging and Programming uClinux on the Renesas (formerly Hitachi Semiconductor) H8S-2674R and H8S-2148AF families of 16-bit microcontrollers at Embedded Systems Conference in downtown San Francisco next week. The presentation will be in Moscone Center Room 309 at 3:45pm on Friday, April 25. (more…)

[Updated Apr. 21, 2003] — Centrality Communications (Santa Clara, CA) unveiled a new family of ultra-integrated dual-core system-on-chip processors intended for use in next-generation wireless and GPS-enabled devices such as smartphones, PDAs, and automotive navigation/telematics systems. (more…)

In this 22-page technical whitepaper, RTLinux originator Victor Yodaiken gives an overview of synchronization methods for real-time, with special attention to the RTCore (RTLinux) real-time operating system. A glossary, included at the end, provides some useful tutorial material. (more…)

Market analyst firm In-Stat/MDR recently completed a research study on the worldwide market for Tablet PCs and Smart Displays. Despite the current gloomy economy and cautious IT budgets, Instat/MDR predicts that these new devices may be able to kickstart the PC market — though they caution that the adoption rate won't be fast. (more…)

Total Impact has upgraded the speed and memory capacity of its small Linux system known as the “briQ”, while simultaneously reducing the system's power consumption. The latest version of the CDROM-sized system boasts an 800MHz IBM PowerPC 750FX processor with up to 1 Gigabytes SDRAM, dual 10/100 Mbit Ethernet ports, and up to 60 Gigabytes… (more…)