Medallion CPU development kit

Techsol has released the first development kit for their Medallion CPU modules. The four sqare inch, low-power Medallion modules are preloaded with Linux, device-drivers, graphics and communications software. They also support industry standards to simplify the connection of Medallion-based products to both enterprise systems and portable devices. Medallion development kits provide a Medallion module mounted on a development infrastructure with ready-to-use interfaces and ready-to-run Linux software, including drivers for the available standard interfaces and the complete development environment.

The Thin Client Medallion Mini Development Kit hardware consists of an I/O board and a CPU board packaged in a 4″ × 4″ aluminum casing. The kit features a 60MHz ARM-720T-based RISC computer with Techsol's boot loader/debugger stored in Flash; Lineo's Embeddix pre-installed in the 32MB Disk-On-Chip module; 32MB of SDRAM for program execution; and Qt Embedded and Qtopia, both from Trolltech. Other elements of the kit include SVGA video, two USB host ports, one USB device port, a 10BaseT Ethernet port, a multimedia card for removable storage, stereo in/stereo out and headset jacks and LED status indicators. Instructions for disassembling the kit and schematics to facilitate development of custom products are also included. In addition, a full-sized development kit, which consists of an I/O board and a CPU board packaged in an ATX form factor, supporting ARM7, ARM9, XScale, MIPS and PowerPC architectures, is also available.

Manufacturer: Techsol Solutions, Inc.

Model: Thin Client Medallion Mini Development Kit

Suggested Retail Price: $500 US

URL: www.techsol.ca

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Zendex ZXE-x86 Embedded Controller

Target applications of the ZXE-x86 embedded controller include gaming systems, industrial control, information kiosks, and monitoring and surveillance systems.

The ZXE-x86's recovery from bad software uploads to Flash memory is benign, enabling improved performance for remote-controlled operations.

The ZXE-x86 embedded controller, available from the Zendex Corporation, performs real-time data control of an operation while allowing data to be remotely downloaded or allowing programs to be remotely uploaded. Incorporating ZF Micro's ZFx86 (formerly MachZ) microprocessor, the ZXE-x86 comes installed with up to 1GB of Flash, EPROM or RAM that can be accessed via Ethernet or the Internet. The processor comes with Linux installed, including a web server and 12 × 32 pin DIP memory sockets for 1GB of memory.

The ZXE-x86 feature set includes interfaces for Ethernet, floppy, IDE primary/secondary, and PS/2 keyboard and mouse connections. Two buffered TTL serial ports, two RS-232 serial ports, two RS-422/485 serial ports and a printer port are also available, as are Type I, II or III PCMCIA interfaces. The feature set can be changed by selecting hardware to meet OEM needs; system functionality can then be changed by replacing the memory ICs or by uploading programs via any I/O port.

Manufacturer: Zendex Corporation

Model: ZXE-x86 Embedded Controller

Suggested Retail Price: $995 US

URL: www.zendex.com

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JumpStart for Communications with LynxOS 4.0

JumpStart packages designed to help manufacturers get to market quickly with pretested and pre-integrated software they can use as a base for new systems.

Future JumpStart packages will be designed for storage, home networking, military/aerospace, telematics, handheld devices and wireless applications.

JumpStart for Communications is the first product in LynuxWorks' new line of component-based developer packages that include the new LynxOS 4.0, middleware, third-party layered software applications and engineering consulting time. The Communications package is aimed specifically at optical networking and new world voice applications. Included in JumpStart for Communications are a TCP/IP stack that supports IPv6, IPSec and integrated firewalls, as well as routing algorithms such as OSPFv2, BGP-4 and RIPv2. LynuxWorks' partners offer multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), Java-based management and CORBA applications.

The JumpStart packages will be built around the new 4.0 version of LynxOS, which offers hard real-time response, stability and open standards. A new feature of LynxOS 4.0 is the application binary interface (ABI) compatibility, which will enable increased levels of compatibility between Linux and LynxOS.

Manufacturer: LynuxWorks

Model: JumpStart for Communications with LynxOS 4.0

Suggested Retail Price: $50,000 US

URL: www.lynuxworks.com

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FASTPATH for Linux

The FASTPATH suite of network processing software accelerates the development of network infrastructure equipment, including switches, routers and access devices.

LVL7 customer engagements are in the enterprise and metro switch router, broadband access, internet appliance, wireless and storage markets.

LVL7, a network processing software company, announced an embedded Linux strategy beginning with FASTPATH 2.0 for Linux. FASTPATH is software designed for networking, switching, routing and access markets. It includes one million lines of code that can be used for assembly, applications, drivers, protocols, management and user interfaces. FASTPATH can be used as an integrated software suite or in function-specific packages. Users can customize FASTPATH with their own functions, modules, plugins and APIs, all of which can be ported to different platforms and operating systems. Integrated on the 2.4 kernel, FASTPATH 2.0 can support developers using Linux regardless of the silicon platform they use, such as network processors, ASICs and ASSPs. It is also platform-independent, with modular and intergrated software currently available for Red Hat, MontaVista and VxWorks. In addition, code that interfaces directly with the network processing hardware is isolated to the ANDL, minimizing changes required to support future generations of silicon and products.

Code included in the FASTPATH suite can be used for Layer 2 switching, Layer 3 routing, bandwidth provisioning and management services. New protocols and features of FASTPATH 2.0 include VLAN routing, VRRP, router discovery, 802.3ad link aggression, port mirroring and support for multiple spanning trees. Traffic services options include the MPLS, DiffServ, LDP, CR-LDP and RSVP-TE protocols.

Manufacturer: LVL7

Model: FASTPATH 2.0 for Linux

Suggested Retail Price: Contact manufacturer

URL: www.lvl7.com

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