PC BIOS pioneer Phoenix Technologies says it's finally time for the PC BIOS to fade away — to be replaced by something Phoenix calls “Core System Software” (CSS). The reason? “Today's connected devices must deliver greater trust, usability, connectivity and manageability in a networked environment,” says Phoenix. (more…)

Wasabi Systems has completed a “highly optimized” GNU toolchain for Intel XScale Technology microprocessors supporting Linux, BSD, and Bare-Metal embedded applications. Wasabi has also completed a port of Embedded NetBSD to the XScale architecture. Wasabi's toolchain and OS target storage, networking, and personal connectivity applications. (more…)

Agere Systems unveiled a new mobile handset chipset meant to enable phone manufacturers to address the growing demand for wireless phones with multimedia functions like real-time audio and video streaming, digital photo imaging, and interactive gaming. The company says its new “Vision” mobile handset architecture combines an advanced digital baseband chipset, proven software, and state-of-the-art tools. (more…)

SSV Embedded Systems has begun bundling an eCos starter kit with its gumstick-sized DIL/NetPC DNP/5280. The kit targets deeply embedded applications requiring networking, such as industrial control and data acquisition. (more…)

European telecommunication equipment supplier Iskratel has chosen Carrier Grade Linux and a modular, open-standards-based hardware platform from Intel for its SI2000 Call Server (CS), a softswitch that serves as the “nerve center” of its next-generation platform for Class-4 and Class-5 telecommunications… (more…)

Over ten years after its initial inception, the PC/104 Consortium has released a PCI-only version of its popular PC/104 form-factor embedded single-board computer modules specification. “PCI-104” is essentially identical to the PC/104-Plus format which combines the ISA and PCI buses on a PC/104 form-factor module, except that the ISA expansion connector has been omitted in the new PCI-only implementation. (more…)

In this sample chapter from the book “Enterprise J2ME“, Michael Yuan introduces you to OSGi programming and gives two complete example applications that run on PDA devices. (more…)

LinuxDevices.com's fourth annual Embedded Linux Market Survey is coming to a close, so vote now if you wish your voice to be heard by the many industry decision makers, market analysts, and developers who read and are influenced by this important study. (more…)

Motorola revealed the name it has chosen for the company formed by the spin-out of the Mototola SPS semiconductor division later this year. “Freescale Semiconductor” — the name for the new entity — was chosen to reflect a new focus for the semiconductor company, the company says. (more…)

PDA Buyer's Guide has published a hands-on review of the embedded Linux based Zaurus SL-C860. The review finds little to complain about, other than the lack of official U.S. distribution, which leads to a slight documentation gap for less experienced PDA users. (more…)

The Open Service Gateway initiative (OSGi) framework provides a Java technology-based lightweight (fully J2ME-compatible) container for dynamic software components. It handles the interactions between components and allows developers to remotely manage the entire application life cycle, including over-the-network deployment and updating. (more…)

Linux DevCenter has published an article by Linux Documentation Project coordinator Guylhem Aznar about the value of buying a PDA such as the Sharp Zaurus that can run free and open source software. For Aznar, it boils down to portability, unification, standardization, sustainability, and flexibility. (more…)

This whitepaper is the second in a series from TimeSys's “2.6 Linux Resource Center” on using the new Linux 2.6 kernel. Authored by TimeSys Senior Product Manager William von Hagen, the whitepapers in this series place special emphasis on the primary issues in migrating existing drivers, applications, and embedded Linux deployments to a Linux distribution based on the 2.6 kernel. (more…)

Linux is famous for coming with a large toolbox and good ways to integrate tools. In this article, Peter Seebach discusses the Unix tools philosophy, how new tools are developed, and how to make a one-off program into a utility you could be using for years to come. (more…)

LynuxWorks has worked with MetroWerks to develop a driver that enables MetroWerks's CodeTEST Software Analysis Tools, Version 4, to be used with 2.6-series kernels. The companies have jointly certified CodeTEST with the 2.6-based LynuxWorks BlueCat Linux, and LynuxWorks is recommending CodeTEST to customers who need a… (more…)