MontaVista has released an embedded Linux BSP (board-support package) that targets a highly configurable Freescale networking processor, aimed at pervasive computing applications. The BSP for Freescale's MPC8349E-mITXE development board offers increased peripheral and real-time support, resulting in a “more realistic development environment,” MontaVista said.

The MPC8349E-mITXE is a mini-ITX board sold by Freescale as a development board for its MPC8349E, the fastest chip in its PowerQUICC II processor family. Introduced in 2004, and based on an e300 core clocked up to 667MHz, the MPC8349E chip features a flexible SoC (system-on-chip) architecture that Freescale says can be rapidly reconfigured according to customer needs — for example, with DDR memory support, dual gigabit Ethernet, dual PCI, high-speed USB controllers, and so on.

Freescale MPC8349EMITX function diagram
(Click to enlarge)
By default, the MPC8349E-mITXE development board comes with U-Boot and a generic PowerPC Linux BSP provided by Freescale. However, MontaVista said its Linux Professional Edition 5.0 (“Pro 5”) distribution offers more complete peripheral support, making it easier for joint Freescale/MontaVista customers to “leverage a cost-effective mix of on-chip and external components.”

Additionally, MontaVista claims that that its Pro 5 BSP can reduce preemption latency by a factor of 15 on the Freescale board, enabling design teams to deploy time-critical code in user space for greater security and stability, compared to kernel-mode hacks.

Availability

MontaVista's BSP for Freescale's MPC8349E-mITXE board is available immediately, free of charge, to current PowerPC subscribers to MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 5.0.

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