Foreword — The “Mongoose” — a Linux-powered robot submarine built by students from the Georgia Institute of Technology — competed with 18 other student-built subs on August 6th and 7th, 2005, in an attempt to successfully navigate through a field of obstacles and complete its programmed mission. (more…)

Black Duck Software is shipping an Eclipse plug-in aimed at integrating license compliance testing with software development practices. The ProtexIP Eclipse plug-in can increase open source code reuse, the company says, while decreasing licensing-related business risks. It should work with Eclipse-based IDEs from a variety of embedded Linux vendors. (more…)

An online panel of experts, including two editors from PC Magazine, will discuss “Clearing Up Open-Source Licensing Confusion” on Wednesday, Aug. 31, in an interactive Ziff Davis eSeminar. The one-hour event will be held at 2 p.m. Eastern (11 a.m. Pacific). (more…)

Worldwide Q2 PDA shipments bounded up 32 percent year-over-year, to 3.6 million units, according to Gartner. Linux PDAs accounted for less than one percent of shipments, a figure likely to grow as PalmSource completes its transition to Linux, and as much-anticipated Linux PDAs such as Nokia's 770 ship. (more…)

LynuxWorks has signed up Arrow OEM Computing Solutions as its exclusive distributor for North America, the companies announced this week. The partnership aims to market LynuxWorks's BlueCat embedded Linux and LynxOS real-time operating systems (RTOSes) and related development tools to US government contractors, primarily in the defense and aerospace sectors. (more…)

A new study released today by code-analysis tools maker Coverity Inc. finds that overall quality and security of the Linux kernel has improved substantially in the last six months. Specifically, six potentially critical defects in the core file system and networking code have been fixed, the company said. (more…)

TimeSys has launched a custom Linux distribution program aimed at “the thousands of 'roll-your-own' Linux developers” looking for a low-cost starting point for embedded designs. The Built-to-Spec program's online tools allow developers to configure and order custom PowerPC, XScale/IA-32, MIPS, and ARM Linux distributions for… (more…)

The Khronos Group has released a specification for accelerated 2D vector graphics, updated its specification for embedded graphics hardware and software, initiated an embedded audio acceleration standard, and annexed a project developing a lossless data interchange format for 3D authoring software, it announced at SIGGRAPH this week in Los Angeles. (more…)

NASA has released version 2.0 of a software library meant to allow real-time applications to be compiled on multiple real-time and desktop OSes. Operating System Abstraction Layer (OSAL) provides generic interfaces for real-time services, filesystems, port I/O, and memory interfaces, and supports Linux, Windows/Cygwin, VxWorks, RTEMS, and Mac OS X. (more…)

Arcom has introduced a “ready-to-run” Linux-based hardware/software development kit for its EBX form-factor, Pentium M-based SBC (single-board computer). The kit bundles the Apollo SBC along with a processor, memory, power supply, I/O and power cables, and Fedora Core 3 Linux pre-installed on a 1GB CompactFlash card. (more…)

[Updated Aug. 8, 2005] — Silicon chips designed — or partly designed — in China will account for 14.8 percent of the world's semiconductor sales in 2005, according to a Reuters report, placing the Far Eastern nation just behind No. 2 Japan (15.5 percent) as the world's third-biggest chip designer. (more…)

MontaVista says the open source real-time Linux project that it founded has produced a full-fledged real-time kernel suitable for time-critical embedded applications on mobile handsets and telecommunications equipment. The Open Source Real-time Linux Project's patch yields 30 times better responsiveness than the current stock Linux kernel, the company claims. (more…)

Comtrend showcased a new Linux-based multimedia IPTV set-top box (STB) at last month's China Broadband & IPTV conference. The CT-702 “Triple Play STB” delivers broadband TV, video-on-demand (VOD), Internet, and voice-over-IP (VoIP) “triple play” (video/data/voice) services, according to Comtrend. (more…)

LinuxJournal has published the first of a seven-part feature on NX, a dual-licensed compression and caching technology for remotely accessing graphical RDP, VNC, and X applications. Additionally, NoMachine has shipped a new version of its commercial NX server software, adding a web management interface and a Java web-hosting applet. (more…)

In the ongoing legal dispute between SCO Group and Novell over who really owns the Unix operating system, it appears Novell has finally had enough. eWEEK's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes that Novell is now attacking SCO in court with everything it has, in an effort to land a knock-out punch and put an end to all its legal shenanigans. (more…)