Fluffy Spider Technology (FST) will reportedly port its user interface technology to ERTOS, a micro-kernel based real-time Linux implementation likely to be used in Qualcomm mobile phones. FST's “FancyPants” UI technology has already been embedded in a multimedia-enabled mobile terminal used in New York City taxis.

Phone UI with FancyPants

FST is best-known for its FancyPants special effects software collection, which it ported to Linux and Qtopia last year. FancyPants takes up about 3MB, and can render effects over on-screen elements such as images and playing videos, FST says. Effects include soft shadows, screen and image transitions, fades and wipes, 32-bit alpha blending, animations, glitter, color manipulation, scaling, rotation, and 3D folds.

ERTOS (embedded real-time operating system) was developed by Australia's government-sponsored National Information/Communication Technology Center (NICTA). It is based on an “L4” microkernel, which in turn is based on the L4Ka::Pistachio microkernel jointly maintained by universities in Germany and Australia.

ERTOS also includes an “Iguana” OS services layer, said to provide a “base for the provision of operating system (OS) services.” Another component is the Wombat “paravirtualised” Linux environment, “designed to provide legacy support for embedded systems,” NICTA says. Conceivably, other OSes besides Linux could be ported to the L4/Iguana microkernel OS.

NICTA announced late last year that Qualcomm would be the first commercial user of ERTOS technology. Qualcomm had previously announced that one of its high-integration chipsets, the MSM6550, would run Linux alongside the BREW execution environment that Qualcomm has historically supported exclusively on its mobile phones and phone chipsets.

Verifone MX870 (Click for details)

In addition to mobile phones, FancyPants targets set-top boxes and other media-centric consumer and mobile devices. It was used earlier in a multimedia-enabled POS (point-of-sales/service) device deployed in New York City taxi cabs.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.