[Updated 1P.M.] — An industry coalition hoping to speed ratification of embattled IEEE standard 802.11n has launched with 26 founding members. The Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) says 802.11n will support wireless networking PHY speeds up to 600Mbps — and actual application throughputs up to 100Mbps — while interoperating with 802.11a/b/g. (more…)

A Stanford-designed robotic car has driven away with the $2M prize in the second DARPA Challenge, a 175-mile race for autonomous vehicles held this weekend in the Mojave desert south of Las Vegas. (more…)

Motorola has sued PalmSource, alleging that PalmSource reneged on a buyout agreement and failed to pay an $8.7M “breakup fee” stipulated in the agreement. PalmSource accepted Motorola's $17.25/share offer two days before agreeing to Access's $18.50/share offer, Motorola's filings in a Delaware Chancery court allege, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times. (more…)

CompuLab is shipping a tiny XScale SBC (single-board-computer) priced at $57 in quantities of a thousand. The CM-X270W is based on an Intel processor and multimedia accelerator, includes Debian Linux, and can be configured to order. (more…)

IBM has published the following 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 . . . ! (more…)

Kontron has enhanced its line of thin, fanless, thin-client operator terminals, adding an x86-compatible embedded processor. The new [email protected] “Micro Clients” are based on the company's ETX format CPU modules, allowing them to be scaled to meet evolving performance requirements, according to the company. (more…)

Palm will ship Linux-powered mobile phones this year, say sources claiming to be close to the company. The devices will be powered by Wind River Linux, and pending carrier reaction, may well be the first Linux-powered handsets distributed widely within the US. (more…)

IBM's DeveloperWorks has published an article describing how the Linux 2.6 kernel supports “processor affinity” — that is, ensuring that a particular process runs on a particular processor or set of processors within a multi-processor machine. Processor affinity can improve real-time performance, as well as cache hit-rates in complex calculations. (more…)

IBM has released an evaluation kit for hardware and software engineers interested in evaluating the PowerPC 405 architecture and CoreConnect bus. The PowerPC 405 Evaluation Kit (PEK) includes transaction-level models, along with a variety of tools, specifications, documentation, and evaluation licenses. (more…)

Three small companies involved in hacking on the Linux-based software environment that will power Nokia's forthcoming 770 Internet tablet have joined the Gnome Foundation's advisory board as corporate members. New members include Matchbox maintainer OpenedHand; Imendio, which contributed GnomeVFS, D-BUS, and GConf hacks; and Fluendo, which adapted GStreamer to Maemo. (more…)

Wind River and FSMLabs will jointly deliver a free seminar on embedded Linux development on Oct. 18, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The seminar will introduce hard real-time development on Linux using FSMLabs's RTLinux product. It will also include a presentation on Wind River's Eclipse-based WorkBench developer tools. (more…)

Nokia's much-anticipated Linux-based Web tablet reportedly will not ship until later this year. Previously, Nokia said it would ship the 770 Internet Tablet in September. (more…)

Wind River Systems Inc. today launched a version of its commercial embedded Linux distribution targeting mobile phones, set-top boxes, PVRs (personal video recorders), and other small-footprint consumer electronics devices. The company expects its Platform for Consumer Electronics, Linux Edition to be used in several mobile phone designs shipping before 2006. (more…)

ARM has launched a processor it says will bring desktop-level computing performance to low-cost, high-volume computing devices. The Cortex-A8 — described as ARM's highest-performance, lowest-power design yet — targets cell phones, media players, and other mobile devices, but could also bring ARM into new device categories, including media encoders, the company says. (more…)

Flash memory pioneer SanDisk has embedded DRM and copy protection functions into several flash card form factors. “TrustedFlash” will allow users to buy music, movies, and games on flash cards for use interchangeably in mobile phones, PDAs, laptops, and other devices, according to the company. (more…)