Linus Torvalds, Andrew Morton, Brian Behlendorf, and Mitch Kapor delivered a panel-style keynote at yesterday's OSDL Enterprise Summit, in Burlingame, Calif. The open source luminaries spoke informally about their interests and concerns, which include kernel developer access to embedded hardware. (more…)

Annual worldwide shipments of handheld devices fell again in 2004, to 9.2 million units — 13 percent below 2003's already lagging numbers — according to a report released today by IDC. The continued decline stresses an urgent need for manufacturers to evolve their devices beyond personal information management, IDC said. (more…)

Olympus has introduced a pair of rugged PDA-like devices dubbed “Tough Digital Assistants” (TDAs). The slim, light-weight TDAs run Linux 2.4.18 (with Qtopia v1.7.0) on a Freescale MXL processor, come with up to 128MB RAM and 256MB Flash, and offer built-in Bluetooth and optional 802.11b wireless. (more…)

An annual conference for software quality managers and testers has issued a call for papers for its fourth annual event, set for October 25th and 26th in Bilbao, Spain. ICSTEST-E (International conference on software testing) will feature tutorials and presentations on embedded software, safety-critical, and real-time systems. (more…)

The fifth annual FOSDEM (free and open source software developer's European meeting) includes several tracks that may interest embedded Linux developers. Set for February 26th and 27th in Brussels, Belgium, the free event includes tracks on development tools, the Linux kernel, and computing grids and clusters. (more…)

The market for network processor chips (NPUs) is finally taking off, according to a research report released this week by In-Stat. Following several sluggish years, NPU unit shipments grew 86 percent between 2003 and 2004, and revenue is expected to approach $500 million by the end of 2008. (more…)

Concurrent Technologies is shipping two low-power, single-slot VMEbus single board computers (SBCs) that support Linux. The VP 325/02x has a 1.6GHz Pentium M processor, while the VP 327/02x can be fitted with either a 1.8GHz or low-voltage 1.4GHz processor (the latter supports extended temperature environments). (more…)

Manifold Labs used Linux and real-time patches to build a rack-mount plugin player for audio performers and recordists. Plugzilla runs a 2.4-series kernel, supports eight channels of 24bit/96kHz audio, as well as MIDI, and comes with 130 plugins, such as reverb, distortion, drum machines, and more. (more…)

The OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) has raised $4 million to seed a non-profit, independent legal center that will provide free services to eligible open source developers and projects. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) will offer asset stewardship, licensing, license defense and litigation support, legal support, and lawyer training. (more…)

Manifold Labs used Linux and real-time patches to build a rack-mount plugin player for audio performers and recordists. Plugzilla runs an embedded 2.4-series kernel, supports eight channels of 24bit/96kHz audio, as well as MIDI, and comes with more than 130 plugins, such as reverb, distortion, drum machines, and more. (more…)