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Dell employee Doug Anson released source code for a version of Google's Linux-based Chrome OS that runs on a Dell Mini 10v netbook. The Mini 10v implementation of the pre-release code for the cloud-oriented OS is “unstable,” but offers WiFi support and fast browsing, and boots in 12 seconds, says Anson.
Kontron has enhanced its family of thin-client HMI (human-machine interface) devices. The fanless “Micro Client IIA” devices feature touchscreen displays from seven to 15 inches, CompactFlash storage, and 1.6GHz Intel Atom processors, the company says.
Concurrent has revised its Red Hat-based real-time Linux distribution, adding support for Intel Nehalem and AMD Opteron processors with up to 48 cores, among other enhancements. RedHawk Linux 5.4 also improves NUMA performance and provides enhanced Nvidia drivers that support Nvidia's “Cuda” parallel computing technology, says the company.
Archos announced it is releasing developer firmware for its Linux-based Archos 5 and Archos 7 Internet Tablets. The “proof of concept” developer edition release for the touch-based portable media players (PMPs) is based on the Angstrom Linux distribution and the OpenEmbedded automated build environment, says the company.
Congatec says it is now sampling a COM Express module featuring Intel's GS45 SFF (small form factor) chipset, said to enable “significant performance increases despite a smaller footprint and lower power consumption.” The Conga-CS45 uses DDR3 memory, has three SATA connectors with RAID support, and supports SDVO, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort graphics interfaces, the company says.
Amazon.com announced two enhancements to its Linux-based Kindle e-book reader, offering 85 percent more battery life, as well as a native PDF reader. The Kindle can now last seven days even with wireless turned on, claims Amazon, which is offering the enhancements to current users via firmware upgrades.
Korea-based Inbrics is readying several Android-powered devices for a CES unveiling in January. The devices include an M1 MID, a dual-screen clamshell, MID-like device called the Dual, and the SoIP Homestation, which combines the functions of an IP set-top box, DLNA-ready media server, and videophone, says the company.
Wind River and Kontron announced a global, multi-year agreement under which the embedded system manufacturer will distribute Wind River's VxWorks and Wind River Linux distributions. The agreement is expected to extend software and service offerings across a range of industries, says Wind River.
U.K.-based Anders Electronics announced an Intel Atom-based COM (computer-on-module) with up to 2GB of memory, 4GB of flash storage, and a microSD expansion slot. The CM-iAM includes a 1.6GHz Z530 CPU, two PCI Express lanes, dual gigabit Ethernet ports, six USB 2.0 ports, and 5:1 audio, according to the company.
Emblaze Mobile offered new details on its “First Else” phone and Else Intuition stack, which is based on Access' ALP 3.0 stack and the LiMo (Linux Mobile) spec. The First Else offers unified messaging, geo-tagging, multimedia, an RSS live-updated “newspaper,” and a thumb-oriented, fan-like touch interface called sPlay.
Imagination Technologies is releasing its second-generation 32-bit Meta processor cores for wider availability. The Series2 Meta core IP integrates DSP functions, supports hardware multi-threaded execution, offers hard real-time capabilities, and supports Linux and Android, says Imagination, which also announced a new PowerVR SGX543MP graphics core family.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin says that Chrome OS and Android are likely to merge at some point, say reports. Meanwhile, we sample some of the response to Chrome OS from across the Googleverse, and try to determine whether calling the cloud-oriented, Linux-based OS “underwhelming” is a diss or a kiss.
Hackers have compiled bootable images of the code released by Google's Chrome OS project. We tested out one of the images on VirtualBox, and despite the limitations of the early code, we found a flexible, extensible web browsing environment that runs well in as little as 256MB of RAM.
Italian embedded Linux firm Dave announced a CPU module based on Texas Instruments' ARM Cortex-A8-based AM3505 and AM3517 system-on-chips (SoCs). The 2.7 x 2/0-inch “Lizard” module offers connectivity including CAN, I2C, Ethernet, and serial I/O, provides extended temperature support, and is available with a Linux-ready evaluation board.
Synology America Corp. is shipping a four-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device, offering up to 8TB sharable RAID storage for home and small business users. The Linux-based DS410j is equipped with an 800MHz processor, a gigabit Ethernet port, two USB ports, and version 2.2 of Synology's DNLA-compliant Disk Station Manager software.