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Semiconductor IP vendor Virage Logic, which is soon to be acquired by Synopsis, released Linux toolchains for its 32-bit RISC/DSP ARC processor cores. The ARC GNU 2.3 Toolchain suite is available for the company's ARC cores, and the ARC Linux 1.3 distribution is available for its high-end, ARC 750D RISC/DSP processor core, which targets consumer electronics devices.
MontaVista Software, LLC, announced the availability of what's claimed to be the first commercial Linux distribution and toolchain optimized for ARM Cortex-A9 processors. Offered as a market specific distribution (MSD) package for MontaVista Linux 6 (MVL6), the software includes a toolchain optimized for the multicore-enabled Cortex-A9 architecture, says the Cavium subsidiary.
VideoLAN is shipping version 1.1 of its cross-platform, open source VLC media player, adding hardware acceleration, WebM support, and faster HD decoding, but deleting Shoutcast support. Meanwhile, several industry reports suggests possible reasons for Adobe's temporary suspension of its beta 64-bit Linux version of Flash.
HP announced a netbook for students that includes a metal-hinged case, carrying handle, and worldwide V.92 modem. Available in bulk orders only, the Mini 100e includes a 10.1-inch display, customizable case, network activity light, and a 1.66GHz Atom N455 processor with DDR3 RAM, the company says.
Motorola and Verizon Wireless announced one of two expected high-end successors to the popular Motorola Droid phone. Running Android 2.1 (and soon 2.2) on a 1GHz TI OMAP processor, the Droid X has a 4.3-inch display with 854 x 480 resolution, an eight-megapixel camera, 8GB of flash plus a 16GB microSD card, and 3G mobile hotspot functionality, say the companies.
Lanner is shipping a rugged vehicle computer designed for video recording and wireless communications. Built around an Intel Atom N270, the fanless “LEC-5520” computer offers four-channel, real-time H.264 video capture and hardware compression, and is equipped with 3G, 802.11b/g/n, and GPS wireless communications, says the company.
Adobe Systems announced it has released the mobile version of Flash Player 10.1 to its platform partners, and the media player will “soon” arrive on Android 2.2-ready phones. Meanwhile, Brightcove has released a web video player SDK for Android based on Flash 10.1.
Wind River has rev'd its GUI development suite for embedded devices, adding support for OpenGL 3D graphics. Wind River Tilcon Graphics Suite 5.8 also broadens its embedded target operating system support from Linux and VxWorks to Windows CE and Windows XP, and adds support for more hardware platforms, including the Intel Atom, says the company.
Axiomtek announced a digital signage computer designed to hang from, and power, large digital signage displays. The DSA-200 supports Intel Celeron M or Core 2 Duo processors, accepts up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, includes a PCI Express Mini Card slot, and has both DVI and VGA outputs, the company says.
Freescale announced new P3 and P5 families within its QorIQ system-on-chip platform, as well its first 64-bit Power Architecture core, clockable to 2.5GHz. The single-core QorIQ P5010 and dual-core P5020 processors offer the 64-bit e5500 core, which uses 30 Watts while clocked at 2.2GHz, and the QorIQ P3041 integrates four e500 cores, using 12 Watts at 1.5GHz, says Freescale.
Adlink announced a EPIC-format SBC that incorporates both PCI-104 and SUMIT (Stackable Unified Modular Interconnect Technology) expansion interfaces. The “Ampro by Adlink” ReadyBoard 850 supports Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs up to 2.26GHz, includes dual gigabit Ethernet interfaces, and offers both 18/24-bit LVDS and a VGA output, the company says.
Mentor Graphics announced a version of its Mentor Embedded Linux development platform that supports Freescale's PowerPC-based QorIQ and PowerQUICC processors. The multicore-ready Mentor Embedded Linux for QorIQ and PowerQUICC includes an Embedded System Builder build engine, an Eclipse-based Mentor Embedded Edge IDE (integrated development environment), and debug tools, says the company.
Toshiba announced a netbook that runs Android 2.1 on a 1GHz, ARM Cortex-A9 based Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. The Toshiba AC100 is equipped with a 10.1-inch, 1,024 x 600 display, and offers eight hours battery life, seven days standby time, and suspend from resume of less than one second, claims the company.
Barnes & Noble is shipping a cheaper version of its Android-based Nook e-reader without a 3G modem. Except for broadband, the $149 Nook Wi-Fi offers all the features of the original Nook, now reduced in price to $199 and called the “Nook 3G,” and both versions now have free access to AT&T's nationwide Wi-Fi network.
Bluecherry released an open source driver for version 2 of its Linux-based compression card for MPEG-4 digital video recording. Redesigned around the Linux kernel's API for Video (Video4Linux) and Audio (ALSA), the GPL-licensed driver primarily targets the Bluecherry compression cards and related Ubuntu-based video surveillance software, but can be used for a variety of video applications.