Pigeon Point Systems is marketing GPL “editions” of its Monterey Linux that support three Texas Instruments (TI) DSP-based digital media processors. The $1,500 offerings include “comprehensive documentation” and tools, and target digital media receivers, set-top boxes, video conferencing, and other consumer electronics products.

According to Pigeon Point, Monterey Linux is a narrowly focused Linux distribution that emphasizes high quality, cost-effective support for selected System-on-Chip (SoC) processors, including the TMS320DM310, TMS320VC547x, and TMS320DA180. These chips provide a general purpose CPU, a C54x DSP, and numerous peripheral interfaces on a single inexpensive, low-power chip.

Monterey Linux aims to provide all the tools necessary for successful development of robust Linux-based products for these SoC devices, according to Pigeon Point. It includes:

• cross development environment based on recent, optimized versions of the GNU development tools running on an x86 Linux host development system
• U-Boot boot loader firmware support
• port of the 2.4 Linux kernel to the target SOC with fully validated support for key I/O interfaces
• cross-debugging model based on GDB and the GDB GUI, including support for kernel debugging
• project-based development tools and sample projects demonstrating key features
• documentation, including User's Guide and Porting Guide

An optional ARM Injector tool allows the developer to control the target hardware from a single USB connection on the host, via a JTAG attachment to the target. A DSP Manager allows software running on the ARM to load and start an application on the integrated DSP. A DSP API that provides a foundation layer for communication between the two processors.

Each edition handles the integrated peripherals of the processor it supports, according to Pigeon Point. For instance, the DM310 Edition leverages the native Linux frame buffer infrastructure to support the advanced On Screen Display (OSD) and adds DirectFB, a thin open source graphics hardware abstraction layer that provides a modular set of Graphical User Interface (GUI) facilities.

“Linux is an increasingly popular development platform for these devices. Monterey Linux editions for these processors support their rich collection of peripherals and includes features such as integrated GUI libraries and communication support between the ARM general purpose processor and the high performance C54x DSP,” commented Charlie Gonsalves, business development manager of the Texas Instruments streaming media group.

“Based on our own internal needs and those of our customers, we realized that there is a need for professionally packaged, cost-effective Linux distributions for high-integration DSP-based processors like the DM310, C547x and DA180,” noted Mark Overgaard, president of Pigeon Point Systems.

 
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