MontaVista Software Inc. today announced that it has been welcomed as a member of the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF). Additionally, MontaVista and Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung announced a contract by which MontaVista will supply embedded Linux for use in “many next generation Samsung devices,” according to Samsung spokespeople.

“It is wonderful that the world's leading suppliers of digital consumer devices have recognized the benefits of Linux to this market,” said Jim Ready, CEO and president, MontaVista Software.

CELF, formed last month by Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial along with Hitachi, NEC, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba, intends to promote the use of the Linux platform for digital consumer electronics devices and to develop and implement standards for a consumer electronics-specific Linux operating system. MontaVista Software has now joined CELF as an Associate Member and will play a driving role in developing standards for the use of Linux in the digital consumer electronics market, according to MontaVista spokespeople.

MontaVista officials noted that the company is already working in various capacities with many of the leading companies in CELF, including Matsushita, NEC, Philips, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.

Earlier this year, MontaVista launched MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition (CEE) 3.0, designed for use in consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes and automotive telematics. MontaVista also released earlier this year a suite of developer tools for consumer electronics Linux, including IBM Websphere, Qtopia, Java and MontaVista Graphics tools.

Samsung Electronics of Korea has already produced a number of devices using embedded Linux, though it is not known whether MontaVista played a role in developing them.

Samsung's Linux-based SMT F240 set-top box provides a range of interactive services, including digital broadcasting, advanced EPGs (Electronic Programming Guides), NVOD (Near Video On Demand), VOD, as well as Internet, and E-mail. Built around a 266MHz x86 processor, the F240 has 64MB of RAM and 32MB of ROM, a smart-card reader and a range of ports including RJ-45 (Ethernet), RS-232 Serial, RCA audio, RCA composite video and S-video. It features an MPEG-2 decoder and built-in Web browser with anti-aliased fonts.

 
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