LinuxDevices.com, the popular “Embedded Linux Portal”, today unveiled the results of the second survey in its Embedded Linux Polls series. The survey's topic was: “Please describe one embedded, real-time, or applied computing application for which you are considering using Linux as the target operating system.” The survey asked embedded Linux developers to select a prospective application and answer six… questions about it. The results, which represent data gathered from developers of a broad spectrum of Linux based embedded system applications, are available to view graphically at www.linuxdevices.com/polls/.

Briefly, here's what was found:

• Question 1: What kind of application is it? — the most common Embedded Linux application areas reported were: industrial data acquisition and/or control (30%); internet appliances or thin servers (26%); telecom/telephony (11%); set-top boxes (11%); military/aerospace (7%).
  
• Question 2: What CPU do you expect to use? — predictably, Pentium family processors were the most common (41%); next was 486 CPUs (26%); third, came PowerPC (19%).
  
• Question 3: What hardware platform do you expect to use? — interestingly, there was a two-way tie between “PC/104 or EBX” and “custom non-PC architecture” for first place (at 26% each); next, came “custom PC architecture” (at 22%); fourth place was occupied by standard desktop-PC motherboards (at 15%).
  
• Question 4: What will the operating software load from? — M-Systems DiskOnChip showed its high popularity for embedded Linux applications, receiving top ratings(33%); ordinary EPROM/ROM/Flash came second (at 26%); third, was conventional IDE hard disk (11%).
  
• Question 5: What peripherals will be in the end system? — not surprisingly, Ethernet LAN was the most common peripheral interface mentioned (at 29%); this was followed by a two-way tie between video graphic displays and data acquisition/control interfaces (14% each); next, was non-graphic character displays (at 10%).
  
• Question 6: What type of Linux OS will you need? — the top choice, by a wide margin, was “Embedded (reduced footprint)” (at 56%); next came Real Time versions (at 29%); and the rest (15%) were planning to use a standard Linux distribution in their embedded applications.

Founded in October 1999, LinuxDevices.com has rapidly established itself as the worldwide Embedded Linux Portal — the first place developers go for the latest information on using Linux in embedded applications. The popular portal site features a broad spectrum of embedded Linux topics including news, articles, events, links, jobs, polls, an interactive forum, and product information — all targeted to Linux-based embedded system developers. LinuxDevices.com carries up-to-date information about Linux-related single-board computers, chips, tools, and support, and highlights a wide variety of embedded, real-time, and small-footprint Linux implementations, including both commercial distributions and open source projects.

 
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.