Linux consulting and services firm Embedded Alley (EA) has launched a customizable support portal for embedded development collaboration with customers and partners. The “Embedded Alley Junction” offers features including code repositories, documentation, tips, issue tracking, FAQs, wikis, and list management, says the company.

Billed as a “high touch” conduit for working with EA, the Junction brings together the company's engineering teams with its customers and its partners for collaboration and joint development, says EA. Topic areas are said to include hardware design and prototyping, board bring-up, kernel coding and debug, driver development, application development and integration, test and QA, and post-deployment issues. The company touts the support service for offering a high degree of personalization in features such as as code repositories and interfaces.

The EA Junction is said to offer the following features:

• Product distribution, update, and source code repositories, tailored to meet subscriber preferences and projects
• Online documentation and development tips
• Customer support issue tracking (using Bugzilla)
• Frequently-asked questions (FAQ)
• Company, customer, and partner collaboration wiki
• EA and industry news feeds
• Customer mailing list management and archives
• Customizable member profiles, subscriptions, and user interface

The Junction is part of EA's recent expansion beyond basic consulting contracts to offer a more complete set of embedded Linux services, and even products. In December, the company announced a software development kit (SDK) called “Embedded Alley Development System for Linux-based Devices.” The SDK includes services, as well as open-source software, cross compilers, libraries, debuggers, prepared file system images, product-specific supporting libraries, and an Eclipse IDE (integrated development environment). EA also recently introduced a NAND flash life expectancy modeling service for predicting flash memory longevity under specific Linux software stacks.

Lately, other embedded Linux tools and services firms have also invested in online development communities. Subscription service Timesys introduced personalized Web 2.0 services in its new LinuxLink 3.0 service, and MontaVista recently launched a flashy new developers site called Meld, which offers a variety of social networking features.

Stated Dan Malek, EA's CTO, “The Junction is the intersection of OEM requirements, open source capabilities, and Embedded Alley Expertise. It represents a collaborative dialog that starts with helping our customers with prototyping and goes all the way through post-deployment support.”

Stated Pete Popov, EA's CEO, “Embedded Alley Junction is not just another social networking portal. Rather, the Junction helps device manufacturers navigate the complexities of the product lifecycle.”

Availability

The Embedded Alley Junction is available now as part of the company's Development System, and is also provided free to its technology partners, says EA. In addition the service is said to be included with consulting engagements in application modeling, power management, and other professional services practices.

 
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