PalmSource's merger with Linux specialist China MobileSoft clearly positions it to battle the heavyweights for the exploding mobile handset market, according to eWEEK compujournalists Libe Goad and David Morgenstern. Less clear are the implications for sibling company PalmOne, the authors say. (more…)

PalmSource's embrace of Linux and acquisition of China MobileSoft catapults it from underdog to formidable contender in the mobile device market, says eWEEK's mobile and wireless editor, Carol Ellison. Ellison says that after a rough first year, PalmSource has found its niche. (more…)

Flash is making a splash in the device market, says an engineering services firm deputized by Macromedia to resell embedded Flash technology to low-volume licensees. Vibren says Flash is coming to POS (point-of-sales/service) terminals, personal organizers, PC replacements, small-screen airline entertainment devices, real-time securities trading terminals, digital signs, and more. (more…)

An industry consortium of digital media and graphics companies has released the first draft of an API for low-level hardware acceleration of vector graphics on mobile devices, including those that run Linux. The Khronos Group's OpenVG (vector graphics) specification draft is available now for public comment, evaluation, and feedback. (more…)

Infineon says one of its industrial system-on-chip processors has scored well on a suite of automotive and industrial benchmarks. The 32-bit, 150MHz TriCore TC1130 supports Linux and RTAI-Linux, and targets programmable logic control (PLC) systems, high-performance motor drive systems, industrial communications devices, and consumer applications such as set-top boxes. (more…)

Foreword: PalmSource Inc. stunned the mobile device world today by annoucing that it has acquired Chinese mobile Linux vendor China MobileSoft (CMS), a leading Chinese mobile phone software company with business operations headquartered in Nanjing, China. (more…)

[Updated 12:30 P.M., PST] — PalmSource announced today that it will soon offer PalmOS as a middleware and application stack for Linux mobile phones. “PalmOS for Linux” will target smartphone manufacturers in China, initially. To gain a local presence, PalmSource has acquired successful mobile phone (more…)

PalmSource Inc. stunned the mobile device world today by annoucing that it has acquired Chinese mobile Linux vendor China MobileSoft, a leading Chinese mobile phone software company with business operations headquartered in Nanjing, China. China MobileSoft is a prominent proponent of embedded Linux in China, (more…)

Concurrent has revised its real-time Linux distribution for single- and multi-processor Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron platforms. RedHawk 2.2 is based on a 2.6.6 Linux kernel, and adds support for Xeon EM64T (Nocona) chips. The company also launched a worldwide channel program yesterday, (more…)

Foreword: This whitepaper from TimeSys discusses Carrier Grade Linux (CGL), and changes in the CGL 2.0 requirements document released last fall. It also discusses CGL 2.0's self-registration process for vendor compliance, which TimeSys (more…)

This whitepaper from esteemed Linux author and TimeSys product manager Bill von Hagen discusses the second Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) specification, and CGL 2.0's self-registration process for vendor compliance, which was completed first by TimeSys. (more…)

Solid Information Technology has launched a free, open benchmark for databases in telecommunications and other network infrastructure applications. The Telecom One (TM1) benchmark simulates real-world telecom database performance better than TPC (Transaction Processing Performance Council) benchmarks, says Solid, and the company is adovating for an industry consortium to manage TM1. (more…)

The percentage of companies using VoIP (voice-over-IP) quadrupled from 3 percent in 2003 to 12 percent in 2004, according to In-Stat/MDR. Enterprise VoIP adoption was much higher, says the firm, which has predicted VoIP penetration of 43 percent among large businesses, and 34 percent among mid-sized businesses, by year's end. (more…)

A leading single-board computer vendor has revealed further details of its first-ever AdvancedTCA (ATCA) server platform, announced last month. Kontron's ATCA platform will include an ATCA chassis, ATCA blades, high-availability (HA) base fabric switches, and “best-in-class” software and middleware from a range of partners, Kontron says. (more…)

A community portal for Power technology has launched with backing from 15 companies. Power.org arrives eight months after IBM announced “Linux-like” licensing for the PowerPC ISA (instruction-set architecture). IBM hopes the portal will coalesce an OSS-like (open source software-like) ecosystem around “Power,” its broad branding term for the PowerPC ISA, (more…)