A Swiss vendor announced a low-cost, Linux-friendly USB-connected audio co-processor today, at the North American Music Merchants (NAMM) convention in Anaheim. BridgeCo's DM1200E weds ARM9 and DSP cores with networking and audio I/O, and targets audio interfaces, musical instruments, and breakout boxes attached to devices running Linux and other OSes. (more…)

A provider of Linux-based WiFi arrays announced certification by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The cyptographic module in Xirrus's 802.11a/b/g-compliant “WiFi Arrays” has received Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 validation,… (more…)

A new game for Google's Linux-based Android platform uses WiFi, GPS, and phone-camera technology, along with Google maps, to create a first-person shooter game you can play “anytime, anywhere — against real people,” according to publisher W2Pi Entertainment. (more…)

Data Robotics has started shipping a Linux-based companion device that network-enables its Drobo “storage robot” appliance. Additionally, the company announced a $2,000 bounty for a port of its “Dashboard” Drobo configuration application to Linux. (more…)

A design center in the South of France specializing in Linux mobile phone development has opened offices in Beijing. Purple Labs's China office will be headed by newly appointed GM of Asian sales Gordon Tsang (pictured at left), formerly of Openwave. (more…)

Linux mobile phone software and services provider Azingo (formerly Celunite) has hired a Motorola mobile-devices exec to lead its engineering operations. As VP of engineering, Ravi Gopalakrishnan (pictured at left) will oversee expansion of Azingo's mobile Linux engineering team. (more…)

Xilinx has sweetened the pie for FPGA customers using its royalty-free soft-core. The MicroBlaze soft-core gained an optional MMU (memory management unit) last fall, for “full” Linux compatibility, and is now bundled with free 10/100 Ethernet, serial UART, I2C, and FPU (floating point unit) IP cores. (more…)

A team of engineering students at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. is designing a digital stethoscope based on uClinux. The team, called “Rhythm Reloaded,” released a project proposal on the open source device, which runs Freescale's Coldfire MCF5275 CPU. (more…)

IBM's DeveloperWorks has published a deeply technical overview of the new CFS (“completely fair scheduler”) available in 2.6.23 and later Linux kernels. Based on fair scheduling theory proven by Con Kolivas, CFS may suit some multi-user embedded systems, and devices with desktop or server-like functionality, the article suggests. (more…)

ABI Research released a study predicting a shift in the digital music server market from desktop PCs to dedicated music servers. Revenue for dedicated music server hardware, including embedded-Linux products, is expected to grow to $3.2 billion by year-end 2012, says ABI. (more…)

Ronetix has released another firmware update for its Linux-friendly combo JTAG/BDM emulator and flash programmer. The PEEDI JTAG/BDM Emulator and Flash Programmer now supports all ARM11 processors, including Freescale's i.MX31 mobile applications processor, according to… (more…)

Mini-PC manufacturer SD-Omega has announced a Linux-compatible mini-PC that can run two displays simultaneously. The SD631T Dual Display is primarily intended as a car PC that can drive both a GPS display for the driver and an entertainment and Net-surfing display for passengers. (more…)

[Updated Jan. 16] — Chipmaker Via teamed with a Taiwanese government-sponsored R&D organization to demonstrate a tiny digital TV running Ubuntu Linux on a 1GHz x86-compatible processor. (more…)

Bluewater Systems of New Zealand has introduced a development platform that accepts credit-card sized, ARM-based CPU modules running Linux. The “Rig 200” provides typical PC-style interfaces and supports three different CPU modules, plus snap-in Bluetooth, GPS, or Wi-Fi hardware, according to the company. (more…)

A la Mobile demonstrated its Linux phone stack working with Google's Android APIs (application programming interfaces). The demonstration is intended to show how the Linux kernel, drivers, and middleware in a la Mobile's Convergent Linux Platform (CLP) can accelerate Android development, the company said. (more…)