MontaVista Contributes to Open Source for CE Linux

Annette Oevermann writes “MontaVista Makes Major Technology Contributions to Open Source to Advance Linux Capabilities for Consumer Electronics

 
Productized Functionality Available to Customers as COTS Offering

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 5, 2003 — MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, today announced the submission of reference implementations of key consumer electronics technology components to the Open Source Community. MontaVista is releasing this code to foster the evolution of Linux® as a platform for digital consumer electronics devices. MontaVista Software has a history of contributing to the evolution of Linux through contributions of code to community project source trees. The company hopes that the new functionality represented by its contributions will be incorporated in future versions of standard Linux for the benefit of software developers worldwide.

 
With the goal of advancing of Linux for consumer electronics devices, MontaVista Software has contributed code to Open Source projects for the following features and capabilities:

 
— DPM (Dynamic Power Management) to extend battery life and reduce power consumption. The project is hosted at http://dynamicpower.sourceforge.net/

— High Resolution POSIX Timers to enhance real-time performance. The project is hosted at http://sourceforge.net/projects/high-res-timers/

— VST (Variable Scheduling Timeouts) to extend the stand-by time of battery powered devices, such as mobile phones. The project is hosted at http://sourceforge.net/projects/high-res-timers/

— PRAMFS (Protected RAM File System) to protect data from errant writes. The project is hosted at http://pramfs.sourceforge.net/.

 
MontaVista is also working on technologies to enable PWQ (Prioritized Work Queues) to enable prioritization and configurability of driver code to enhance responsiveness. This project will also be submitted to Open Source.

 
Other historic real-time contributions by MontaVista have included the preemptible Linux kernel and enhanced real-time scheduling. These contributions have already become standard features in the 2.6 Linux kernel and promise to expand the applicability of Linux to ever broadening embedded applications areas. For more information on these contributions visit http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rml. MontaVista also makes regular contributions to various Linux-related project source trees, including many of the CPU architecture project that manage standard support of microprocessors like PowerPC, MIPS, and ARM architectures.

 
“By continuing to place such technology into Open Source, MontaVista Software invites our open standards and open source community peers to join forces with us and with industry-leading hardware vendors to implement standard technology on the broadest possible platform base,” commented Kevin Morgan, vice president of Engineering, MontaVista Software. “Opening these projects is a call to action to all interested parties to bring these critical technologies rapidly into the marketplace and out into digital consumer electronics systems.”

 
The functionality represented by the code submissions either is currently, or will be incorporated soon in MontaVista® Linux® Consumer Electronics Edition (CEE). MontaVista Software is also actively participating in the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) development of consumer electronics Linux standards and is committed to support those standards.

 
CEE is the first commercial quality Linux operating system and cross-development environment specifically designed for consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes and automotive telematics. MontaVista provides such advanced features to customers as integrated, quality assured components of products before they are finalized and accepted by the Open Source Community.

 
Available since March, MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.0 enhances Linux with dynamic power management, rich consumer-focused networking and consumer-grade reliability. Based on the 2.4.20 Linux kernel, CEE 3.0 incorporates DPM (Dynamic Power Management), support for XIP (eXecute In Place) of the kernel and applications, streaming media optimizations, the O(1) real-time scheduler and new MontaVista System Measurement Tools for tuning system performance, timing and memory size. CEE also features bundled power-management-enabled driver support for peripherals including digital cameras, IrDA, MMC cards and USB.

 
As with all open source projects, interested parties are invited to examine and download code from the indicated the project sites. A new white paper from MontaVista Software that reviews the key technologies and tools required to build next-generation advanced consumer electronics applications is also available for download at http://www.mvista.com/dswp/techpaper/index.html. For additional information on embedded Linux for consumer electronics, contact MontaVista Software at info@mvista.com.

About MontaVista Software

MontaVista Software is a leading global supplier of systems software for intelligent connected devices and associated infrastructure. MontaVista powers the embedded revolution by providing GNU/Linux-based open-source software solutions. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system (RTOS) pioneer James Ready, MontaVista offers a family of products under the MontaVista Linux umbrella that address broad-based software developer needs encompassing applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer electronics. Multiple editions of MontaVista Linux are available including Professional, Consumer Electronics and Carrier Grade, along with complementary technology products providing powerful Java and graphics development capabilities.

 
Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, Calif., MontaVista Software is a privately held company funded by leading investors such as Alloy Ventures, US Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co., IBM, Intel Capital, Sony, Panasonic (Matsushita), Toshiba America and Yamaha Corporation. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit http://www.mvista.com.

 
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. MontaVista is a registered trademark of MontaVista Software, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

 
Contacts:

Joe Samagond,
Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications,
MontaVista Software Inc.,
Phone (408) 328-9234,
E-mail: jsamagond@mvista.com

 
Patricia Colby,
PR Strategy and Business Development,
Pacifico Inc.,
Phone (408) 293-8600 ext. 340,
E-mail: pcolby@pacifico.com”