TeraLogic, Inc., the leading developer of integrated circuits, platforms, and software for digital television, today announced the Cougar-L Linux Digital TV Platform. Cougar-L is based upon TeraLogic?s TL851 Universal Decoder and TL811 ?Gateway? PVR Controller chips. The Cougar-L software API is compatible with the original Cougar system, which runs on the VxWorks operating system. TeraLogic will continue to support the Cougar API and multiple operating systems in future generations.

With Cougar-L, TeraLogic broadens the operating system options of its Cougar Platform to include Linux. Cougar, the most successful DTV platform ever launched, has been shipping to customers since 1999 with the VxWorks operating system. More than 250 Cougar Platforms have been shipped to date. Digital TV, set-top and PVR/DVR system manufacturers worldwide are using the Cougar platform for DTV software and system development.

Leading OEM and component manufacturers have cooperated with TeraLogic in developing the Cougar-L platform. Among these partners are Kenwood, PMC-Sierra (QED), SONY, Texas Instruments, and VividLogic.

“Our IEEE1394 solution with 5C content protection is supported on both Cougar and Cougar-L,” said Cecelia Smith, Connectivity Consumer Electronics Marketing Manager for Texas Instruments. “We are working closely with TeraLogic to insure a seamless interface between our IEEE1394 solutions and their TL851 Universal Decoder and TL811 PVR Controller IC. This proven solution gives our customers a significant time to market advantage.”

“Our FireBus IEEE1394, 5C, AVC and HAVi stacks run on both Cougar and Cougar-L,” said Shiva Patibanda, President and CEO of VividLogic. “Working with TeraLogic, we are able to provide an integrated solution that reduces design risks and shortens time-to-market for leading OEMs.”

Numerous add-on options are available in addition to the following base feature set:

Hardware

• Pre-production style single board design with TL851 Universal Decoder IC, TL811 ?Gateway? PVR Controller IC and MIPS CPU
• Support for multiple Network Interface Modules allow PIP, PVR Watch and Record
• Built-in Hard Disk for PVR and data applications
• IEEE1394 support for networking consumer appliances including digital VCR
• Ethernet and USB for peripheral interconnect
• Built-in front side smart card reader for Conditional Access

Software

• Linux kernel based on SGI sources
• Journaling file system for robust PVR applications
• Support for X Windows and TCP/IP networking stack
• Cougar Application software API
• Cross compiler and debugger for x86 hosted Linux development
• USB based keyboard and mouse support

“Cougar-L continues our strategy of partnering with industry leaders to offer our customers a flexible, complete solution,” said Jon Zierk, VP Sales & Marketing for TeraLogic. “We now have complete software stacks supporting multiple CPUs, multiple O/Ss, PVR and other media functionality, along with a host of front-end and peripheral options.”

Availability

The Cougar-L platform is available now with partner solutions. OEM products based on the Cougar-L design are expected to be introduced to the market this year.

About TeraLogic, Inc.
Founded in 1996, TeraLogic, Inc. designs integrated circuits, software and platforms for digital TV that enable the delivery of compelling entertainment, information and interactive services to the home. With products powered by TeraLogic’s technologies, consumers can enjoy crystal clear video and audio, Internet, electronic commerce, electronic program guides and interactive data services. The company?s customers and partners include Sony, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Access, Daewoo, JVC, Kenwood, Lucent, MIPS, NDS, NEC, NxtWave, Oren, Panasonic, ReplayTV, Sanyo, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, VividLogic, Wind River Systems and Zayante.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, and with a growing presence in Tokyo, TeraLogic has more than $90 million in invested capital from Mayfield Fund, Citicorp, Levensohn Capital, Sony, Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung, and other leading investors. More information about TeraLogic may be obtained by calling the company directly at (650) 526-2000 or by visiting the company’s website at www.teralogic.tv.

About Texas Instruments: see www.ti.com

About VividLogic: see www.vividlogic.com

Editorial Contacts:

TeraLogic:
Jon Zierk
TeraLogic Inc.
650-526-2000
jzierk@teralogic.tv

Blanc & Otus:
Nicole Zent
PR for TeraLogic, Inc.
415-856-5228
nzent@blancandotus.com

NWfusion.com steps back and looks at the gains Linux is making. “Despite the hype and the fears, Linux and other open source software have
made serious gains in corporate IT shops. The strength of the technology is real,
enterprise users and analysts proclaim, and vendor giants such as IBM,
Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are betting heavily on Linux and investing
billions of dollars in open source software development to make it even stronger.
And more is on the way, from the enterprise-class products coming at this
week’s LinuxWorld show to improved symmetric
multiprocessing (SMP) support that could come in the next year.”

Posted at LWN.net: Eben Moglen, board
member and general legal counsel to the Free Software Foundation,
yesterday filed a response to the Proposed Revised Final Judgment in
United States vs. Microsoft. The FSF seeks to remove verbiage added by
Microsoft that we believe would eliminate the value of the settlement by
preventing Free Software systems from competing effectively against
Windows products.

Slashdotters discuss an item on Kerneltrap.com in Rob Landley proposes a “penguin patch lieutenant” system
that he believes would scale better than Linus Torvalds’ handling of Linux kernel patches.

Alan Cox: “This is just a standing still release. Most of the work was actually done
by Arjan van de Ven.”

Download: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/alan/linux-2.4/2.4.18/

[+ indicates stuff that went to Marcelo, o stuff that has not, 
  * indicates stuff that is merged in mainstream now, X stuff that proved 
    bad and was dropped out] 

 Linux 2.4.18pre7-ac1 
 o        Merge with 2.4.18pre7                                (Arjan van de Ven) 
         | + some quota fixups redone by me 
         | several 18pre7 netfilter bugs left unfixed for now 
 o        Rmap-12a                                        (Rik van Riel and co) 

IDG News Service reports that
ElcomSoft, the employer of freed Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, has filed a series of
motions with a U.S. District Court spelling out how it plans to defend itself
against charges that it violated terms of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Kenneth G writes, “There have been some rumors that the top domain linux.nu is for sale at Domaintrade. But according to linux.nu the domain is NOT for sale.”

linuxquestions writes, “Now that 2001 is over it is time to decide what you think the best products of the year were. The 2001 LinuxQuestions Members Choice Awards are now open for voting. This is your chance to choose which products you think really stood out last year.”
Members Choice Awards. LinuxQuestions.org

Jedi/Sector oen writes, “FreeBSD 4.5-STABLE is now available for download and for purchase .”

– by Tina Gasperson –
Jay Beale, the lead developer of Bastille Linux and an independent security consultant, says it’s not the Unix-based systems with interesting stuff on them that get hacked, it’s the vulnerable ones. And if you’re not prepared to tighten up what you get from the vendor, it’s just a matter of time.

Beale shared his philosophy for building a secure system Tuesday at a LinuxWorld Expo tutorial on securing Linux/Unix systems. “The purpose of tightening a system is just to make it hard to attack,” he says.

As the development of Linux progresses, many people set up systems that are running lots of features. For instance, in the Mandrake Linux setup, you can choose to install software that makes your computer an FTP server, a Web server, or even an email server.

“If there’s a bug in any one of these features,” says Beale, “then the chances are that someone can exploit one of those features. If you’ve left your system as it is, from the vendor, you’re going to be vulnerable.”

The problem happens when people think that they don’t need extra security measures because their system “just isn’t interesting.” Beale’s example is the average university mathematics department. “If I’m the system administrator, I’m thinking, ‘what could a hacker possibly want with my system?’ so, why worry?” But, Beale says, even the math department he was a part of was continuously cracked.

“The issue is, while you can target a system, an attack more than likely isn’t targeting you specifically,” he says. A script kiddie looks for and downloads exploit code that tells him what to look for. “He sets up a scanner with a huge block of IP addresses. Out of the tens of thousands of addresses, he’ll get a list of a few hundred that are vulnerable. In that list is perhaps my home machine, perhaps the university math department.

“They’re not coming after us because we’re interesting, they’re coming after us because we’re vulnerable.”

The way to stop hackers, says Beale, is to employ what he calls minimalism. “If you can bring your system down from 10 functions to three functions, there’s less of a chance to be exploited. This is why we tighten.”

Beales lists five things that sysadmins can do to lock down their systems:

1. Set up a firewall. “This is not the end of the security process,” Beale says. “But it is a good start.”

2. Decrease the number of privileged programs. By this Beale means don’t run too many applications that give the user power to make changes to the system.

3. Tighten configurations on the remaining programs. Most network daemons can be set to reduce their access and the kinds of interactions they permit.

4. Reduce the number of paths to root. Every user on the system is assigned a number, or UID. Root is assigned the number zero. Some programs automatically run with the root UID, a potential vulnerability. Reducing these kinds of programs reduces the “paths to root.”

5. Deploy intrusion detection. “Tripwire (an application to detect intruders) can be amazingly effective,” says Beale.