National Semiconductor issued a progress report today regarding a series of “strategic profit-improvement actions” launched earlier this year. A key aspect of the plan, representing around half of a project cost savings of $120 million annually, is to eliminate two business units: the Information Appliance (IA) chip unit, which consists primarily of the (more…)

CNET has reviewed the SL-5600 and upgraded their verdict from a rather negative earlier one (“While true geeks will love the Zaurus, most users will find Pocket PC and Palm devices easier to live with.”) to a relatively positive current… (more…)

Nikkei Business Publications Asia reported today that NEC will use an embedded Linux operating system in its new 3G handsets. Nikkei quotes Akira Yoshimoto, assistant general manager for NEC's mobile terminal business unit, as saying the the new mobile phone OS will be based on MontaVista Linux. (more…)

This article at mozilla.org introduces the new Mozilla “Firebird” browser. The Mozilla Firebird project is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. Quoting from the introduction to the Firebird article . . . (more…)

MontaVista Software announced embedded Linux support for ATI's highly integrated Xilleon 220 system-on-chip processor which targets set-top boxes, digital TVs, and other consumer electronics devices. (more…)

QNX Software Systems announced that the popular MySQL database is now available for use on version 6.2.1 of its QNX Neutrino real-time operating system (RTOS) running on x86 processors. (more…)

eCosCentric announced that eCos 2.0 is now available for free download and on CDROM. The latest release supports 74 evaluation and development platforms and includes processor support for ARM (including StrongARM and XScale), SuperH, Intel x86 (IA32), PowerPC, MIPS, Matsushita AM3x, Motorola 68K/Coldfire, SPARC, Renesas H8/300H and NEC V850, the company said. (more…)

IDT (Integrated Device Technology, Inc.) and Cavium Networks announced a jointly developed Linux-based reference platform for developing security-accelerated gateways and VPN/firewall appliances based on IDT's RC32438 Interprise communications processor along with Cavium's Nitrox Lite CN1001i IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) coprocessor. (more…)

VersaLogic announced a special promotion featuring the company's PC/104-Plus form-factor Jaguar single-board computer (SBC) along with a free 48MB M-Systems DiskOnChip Flash disk with a preinstalled copy of Red Hat Linux 7.1. The bundle is intended to give embedded system developers an opportunity to demo a Jaguar SBC and try Linux at the same time, the company said. (more…)

The fourth annual Libre Software Meeting (LSM) will be held July 9-12, 2003 at the Technopole in Metz, France, on University of Metz's Saulcy campus. The four-day meeting is intended for organizations, experienced professionals, and beginning users of “free software,” conference organizers said. (more…)

Opera Software announced the first release of Opera 7 for Linux, bringing the Linux version of Opera's popular browser up to the same level of development as the current Windows version of Opera. Opera 7.11 for Linux includes several major new features and changes relative to Opera 6 for Linux, including a built-in email/news client which was previously only included in the Windows version of Opera, the… (more…)

Venture Development Corporation (VDC) has announced its annual Platinum and Gold vendor rankings for the categories of Single Board Computers (SBCs) and Embedded Motherboards. The awards are part of VDC's annual market research on off-the-shelf computer boards for embedded and real-time applications. (more…)

Although written by a self-described “open source Java developer,” this technical article at JavaWorld.com attempts to provide a fair comparison between J2ME and the .NET compact framework. The author explores how to build GIS mobile clients using a mix of .NET Web services, J2EE, J2ME, and .NET Compact Framework technologies, using XML Web services to enable such a heterogeneous design. (more…)

Updated Sep. 29, 2003 — Sharp announced the addition of two new Zaurus “personal mobile tools” to its Linux-based PDA lineup in Japan today. The new models — the SL-C750 and SL-C760 — appear nearly identical in most respects to the SL-C700 announced last November. (more…)

Plat'C2 (Plat Communication Components Inc. — Tokyo, Japan) introduced a tiny PowerPC-based Linux “micro-server” at the recent NAB2003 show in Las Vegas, NV. The OpenBockS comes with two 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports, and is said to be useable “off-the-shelf” as a fully functional firewall/router, mail server, or web server. (more…)