Research Triangle Park, NC — (press release excerpt) — Red Hat and multimedia software developer 3G LAB today announced that they are jointly designing and developing what the two companies describe as “the first open source, real-time operating system for next generation 2.5G (GPRS) and… (more…)

By Stephen Shankland; special to ZDNet News . . .

The PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) has all but approved an Intel proposal for the next generation PCI, with full consent expected Friday. (more…)

PlayApp, LLC (Dallas, TX) has announced what they describe as “a free open-source alternative to Microsoft's Passport”. Instead of routing authentication requests through a Microsoft service, users carry around a tiny plug-and-play USB device that is small enough to fit on a key chain. (more…)

Santa Cruz, CA — (press release excerpt) — From household appliances and consumer electronics gadgets, to controllers used in aviation, factories, and automobiles, application-specific devices have become a new frontier for Linux, according to a new report published today by software industry analyst Evans Data Corporation. (more…)

Half Moon Bay, CA — (press release excerpt) — real-time operating system developer OnCore Systems Corporation today announced a multi-year contract with processor core IP provider Siroyan (Reading, U.K.). (more…)

Contrary to the headline of a Reuters news release (“Red Hat and 3G Lab team up to make 'wireless Linux' “), Red Hat and 3G Lab are not developing a wireless version of Linux for webphones. (more…)

Seattle, WA — (press release excerpt) — Seaweed Systems Inc., a specialist in OpenGL and X Window graphics software products and services, today announced it is expanding its technical and marketing resources to focus on producing 2D and 3D graphics drivers that are certifiable to the DO-178B standard. (more…)

G.Mate has announced the re-launch of a new and improved developer website for its YOPY Linux PDA. Quoting from the site's home page . . . (more…)

LinuxDevices.com has launched a new “quick reference guide” devoted to the growing use of Java technology within Linux-based embedded systems and intelligent devices. The continuously updated Embedded Java+Linux Quick Reference Guide is expected to be a popular source of information for embedded system and device… (more…)

“Netbooks” are small, low-cost, power-efficient mini-notebook computers, often based on low-power Intel processors, such as the Atom. Since Asus achieved the first mainstream netbook success with its Linux-based Eee PC, netbooks have gone on to become one of the best-selling categories in all of computing. Most of these netbooks are also available in Windows XP versions, and other Windows-based netbooks may be found in the Windows Netbook Showcase at our sister site, WindowsForDevices. For a list of Linux-compatible netbooks, read on!
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A commentary by Stephan Somogyi, of ZDNet News . . .

In the high-profile tech world, talk of processor wars is nothing new. Intel vs AMD is the standard battle of the behemoths, x86 vs PowerPC another big favorite, with the occasional bit of Alpha zealotry thrown in for variety's sake. (more…)

[Updated: July 26, 2001; 2:10 pm] The debate on “Shared Source vs. Open Source Software” featuring Microsoft senior vice president Craig Mundie, Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann, and a panel of experts, which took place this morning at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, is now available for online download. (more…)

In this introductory whitepaper about using Linux in embedded applications, Bill Peisel (Chief Technology Officer of NetSilicon, Inc.) explains why Linux has become increasingly popular as an embedded operating system, identifies some of its strengths and weaknesses relative to such applications, and describes the process of adapting Linux to the unique requirements of embedded systems and smart devices. (more…)

By Stephen Shankland; special to ZDNet News . . .

Editor's note: the full debate is available as a RealPlayer audio/video telecast online. (more…)

The evolution of embedded computers

You don't have to go too many years back to recall a time when designing and building embedded systems was a relatively uncomplicated matter. Not that the process was easy — there simply weren't many choices to make. Combine a few inputs and outputs with some time critical components and, voila, you had an embedded system. (more…)