Wind River says it, too, will deliver embedded Linux and tools for IBM's much-heralded PowerPC 970FX processor. Wind River says it will support the new chip — a die-shrink of the PowerPC 970 chip found in Apple Macintosh G5s — through its recently announced partnership with Red Hat.

LynuxWorks and TimeSys have also pledged support for the 970FX, with LynuxWorks even releasing an embedded Linux development kit that lets programmers get started using Apple G5 desktop machines as a development platform, pending IBM's release of a development board for the 970FX.

The 90nm PowerPC 970FX draws half the power and will clock much higher than the 130nm PPC 970, according to IBM, and is therefore expected to support server blades with a higher processor density and lower cooling requirements.

Wind River says its 970FX products will target next-generation networking, aerospace, and defense applications. It calls IBM “instrumental” in its decision to embrace Linux.

Wind River says it will also support the 970FX with VxWorks 6.0, a major revision of the company's proprietary RTOS with an as-yet unannounced release date.

Other Wind River products slated for 970FX support include the VxWorks Developer's Toolkit and the Wind River Workbench.

 
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