Freescale Semiconductor will co-found an evaluation lab in China chartered with helping commercialize embedded Linux in China. The MII-Freescale Linux Systems Lab, a joint effort with the China Software and Integrated Circuit Promotion (CSIP) Center, will develop systems for evaluating the performance and stability of pervasive computing applications.

According to the parties involved, Freescale and third-party companies will equip the lab with PowerPC processor-based development boards and workstations, as well as development tools, such as Freescale's CodeWarrior Development Studio. The CSIP Center will staff the lab and conduct system evaluation testing for benchmark suites of Linux products. It also plans to engage Chinese software companies in these projects, which are expected to provide application software porting for the PowerPC architecture and Linux OS.

Zhang Qi, MII director general of Electronics Information Products Department, Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, said, “[The joint lab will] support Linux development in China, especially the commercialization of embedded Linux.”

Bill Dunnigan, vice president and general manager for Freescale's Computing Platform Division, said, “Freescale's technologies [provide] the processing intelligence behind many of [China's] embedded systems. We welcome the opportunity to encourage even more innovation and growth within the pervasive computing industry.”

Qiu Shan Qin, chief of CSIP, said, “This collaboration between CSIP and Freescale is intended to provide complete evaluation systems for Linux products, to enhance stability and compatibility, and as a result, to establish evaluation benchmarks of standard Linux products.”

Ni Guang Nan, Academia of China, said, “Considering the proliferation of Linux products in the embedded space in the future, there is an urgent need for these scientific and effective evaluation systems.”

Additionally, Freescale and the CSIP Center plan to start a PowerPC Linux Developers Forum, set for Q2, 2005, in Beijing. The Forum will provide Chinese OEMs, software companies, universities, and government entities with hands-on training with PowerPC processor and Linux OS technologies, and update participants on the PowerPC architecture and Freescale product roadmap.

 
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