MontaVista has upgraded its Linux-based software platform for mobile phones. Mobilinux 4.1 supports lower-cost hardware, the company says, thanks to footprint improvements aimed at lessening DRAM and flash memory requirements. The OS includes advanced real-time capabilities, and is suitable for use on single-chipset, mass market phones, according to the company.

Among the footprint improvements are options to configure the platform with:

• uClibc — a footprint-optimized subset of the GNU C libraries that supports “full-featured” C/C++ applications, MontaVista says
• directFB — a thin library that runs on top of the Linux kernel framebuffer, providing hardware abstraction, input device handling, and hardware acceleration, with software fallbacks for operations not supported by underlying hardware
• Squashfs — a read-only filesystem said to allow increased capacity for persistent data storage

Additionally, Mobilinux 4.1 is available with developer tools that can help engineers “significantly reduce” total memory footprint, according to MontaVista.

Other touted Mobilinux 4.1 features include:

• Addresses handset manufacturer and mobile operator specifications through open standards

• Supports requirements for mass-market, single-chip phone designs, including advanced real-time support
• Power management improvements, including:
  • Dynamic Power Management (DPM) that improves power performance via on-the-fly adjustments
  • “MontaVista Power Manager,” described as “an application that helps to manage the dynamic power profiles using DPM.”
  • Platform independent DPM Library
  • Variable scheduling timeouts (VST)
  • Memory-type based allocation (MTA)

Another claimed benefit of Mobilinux 4.1 is that in combination with MontaVista's Carrier Grade Linux products, it can enable operators to “leverage a single platform from the network to the device.”

Yankee Group Senior Analyst John Jackson stated, “For handset manufacturers, sustainable competitive advantage requires cost and time-to-market efficiencies and product differentiation. Globally, manufacturers are looking to Linux as the platform for their next generation designs. MontaVista Software's work in adapting Linux for the mobile handset market has catalyzed a platform migration movement among many of the top manufacturers. MontaVista Linux alone now powers 20 million phones. Most of these are in Asia with tremendous expansion beginning in the European and North American markets.”

Hugues De La Vergne, a principal research analyst at Gartner, stated, “Given highly fragmented market requirements, the ability to address a variety of customers by making small modifications or extensions to a common platform can reduce many of the challenges facing handset manufacturers today. Linux is one potential way to address those problems that directly affect manufacturers seeking to achieve a degree of control they believe necessary to continue growing their business.”

Availability

Mobilinux appears to be available today, under a subscription-based, non-royalty bearing license.

Mobilinux 4.1 appears to initially support Freescale's ARM11-based MC9328MX31 SoC (system-on-chip processor), also known as the i.MX31. The i.MX31/i.MX31L shares the same core as Freescale's highly integrated MXL “mobile phone on a chip.”

 
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