Honeywell is expanding its building automation solutions program with the addition of a Linux-based controller, reports European software firm SYSGO (Mainz, Germany). SYSGO said it recently completed the development of Linux-based system software for the Honeywell Excel Web, a new member of Honeywell's Excel… 5000 Open family. The new Linux-based building automation device will begin shipping in early 2004, SYSGO said.

The project required developing a board support package for the Motorola PowerPC 855T processor on which the Honeywell controller is based, plus drivers for required peripherals and a boot loader, SYSGO said. The application software, which will run on top of the embedded Linux operating system, is being developed by Honeywell.

“The broad range of software protocols available under Linux . . . enabled us to introduce a number of new features for our building automation systems,” noted Hans-Werner Koch, who is responsible for Honeywell's “Building Automation Europe” development.

This project is Honeywell's first building automation device based on Linux, and represents the first step of an overall Honeywell Linux strategy, a source said.

As a consequence of this project, SYSGO said it has now added support for Motorola's PowerPC 855T processor to its ElinOS embedded Linux development environment.

 
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