RISC-based application-ready systems developer Applied Data Systems (ADS) put together an impressive booth at LinuxWorld 2003, demonstrating a number of cool devices running open source software.

The centerpiece was a pair of embedded systems, one based on ADS “Bitsy X” single-board computer (SBC) with a webcam uploading images via an 802.11b network to the other system, based on an ADS “Graphics Master” SBC attached to an LCD display. The demonstration integrated USB, 802.11b and IrDA, among other standards. (The Graphics Master SBC is pictured above-right, and the BitsyX is shown below-left; click either photo to enlarge.)

The ADS Bitsy X SBCs were demonstrated running two different open source PDA environments downloadable from handhelds.org: OPIE and GPE. OPIE uses Qt/Embedded and runs Konqueror, while GPE uses Tiny-X (a small footprint version of X-Windows) and runs the miniscule Dillo browser. The environments ran on JFFS2 filesystems, featuring excellent compression, load-leveling, journaling, and volatility across reboots.

Also on display were full-scale Debian GNU/Linux systems running on 4GB Hitachi micro-drives and Intel XScale processors. These truly tiny Linux systems have very low power requirements, thanks to CPU voltage and frequency scaling. They also feature a rich development environment with a complete array of native ARM/XScale compilers and linkers, eliminating the need for cross-compiling in an embedded development environment, according to ADS.

Really tiny embedded systems were shown residing on 3MB ROMs and booting as root filesystems into 8MB ramdisks. Combined with CRAMFS or JFFS2 filesystems, such root images can be used in relatively full-featured systems.

“The combination of the vast array of open source software and ADS full featured and efficient hardware with GNU/Linux installed allows our customers to develop and deploy their systems rapidly,” commented Robert Whaley, Director of Linux Solutions at Applied Data Systems.

 
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