MontaVista Launches Enhanced Linux Platform for Consumer Electronics

Posted by dave on Feb 23, 2004 7:06 AM EDT
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CEE 3.1 Boasts New Comprehensive DevRocket Development Environment and Several Advanced Technical Features

MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, today announced MontaVista(R) Linux(R) Consumer Electronics Edition (CEE) 3.1 -- the next generation of the company's Linux operating system and development environment designed specifically for consumer electronics applications such as mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes and automotive telematics.

CEE 3.1 incorporates MontaVista(R) DevRocket(TM) 1.0, the company's new comprehensive integrated development environment (IDE), built on industry standard Eclipse technology, that offers a wide choice of targets and host platforms, including Linux, Windows and Solaris. MontaVista DevRocket integrates and streamlines essential development activities, including compilation, editing, debugging and revision control, and supports integration of key third party Eclipse development tools and components.

In addition to DevRocket, the primary new features of version CEE 3.1 include:

  • PRAMFS (Protected RAM File System), a new Linux file system to protect data from corruption

  • Debugging of XIP (execute in place) applications

  • Integration of the CEE System Measurement Tools into DevRocket

  • Event Logging for system recovery support

  • Pre-link Tool for applications and libraries - accelerated application start-up

  • System Target Tools for remote target access via DevRocket

  • Pre-configured Fast Boot

  • Native Windows hosted development for Linux targets

"MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.1 builds on our success and experience in the consumer electronics market with new features and a sophisticated new development environment," said Scott Hedrick, CEE product manager, MontaVista Software. "Since we launched CEE a year ago, we have seen dramatically increased demand for our solution, which helps consumer electronics manufacturers get to market more quickly with advanced features, at a lower total development cost, and with less risk."

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.1 is based on the 2.4.20 Linux kernel. It targets a broad range of consumer device-specific processors from Texas Instruments, Intel, Renesas, Motorola and ITE (QED MIPS). CEE has rapidly picked up support from many leading commercial application and middleware suppliers in addition to the vast number of open source applications and software components. CEE 3.1 builds on the advanced features introduced in CEE 3.0 last year including DPM (dynamic power management) and ability to XIP the Linux kernel and applications directly from flash memory.

CEE 3.1 delivers new features for Linux that are priorities for companies developing consumer electronics devices and MontaVista Software has been working closely with the CE Linux Forum (CELF) in defining and quickly delivering these features in a fully tested and productized Linux distribution to market. MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition will meet the CELF 1.0 Specifications once they are finalized.

Scores of consumer electronics companies are already shipping products powered by MontaVista Linux. Leading companies around the world are developing devices as varied as mobile phones, PDAs, set-top boxes, Internet radios, residential gateways, automotive telematics, HDTVs (high definition Television) and Karaoke machines. In the past year, a number of consumer products running on MontaVista Linux have come to market. These included mobile phones and residential gateways from Motorola; a home server from Sharp; a telematics application from Volvo; a universal remote control for the home from Philips; and a broadband terminal and TV tuner from Panasonic.

At the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes, France, this week, several companies will be demonstrating MontaVista Linux-based products and platforms. These include Texas Instruments, OpenWave, Intel, Force Computers, Access and PacketVideo. Motorola PCS will feature the new A760 and A768 mobile phones based on MontaVista Linux, and GIGA STREAM will display its Universal Navigation Switch (UNS), also built with MontaVista Linux.

Availability

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition 3.1 is now available from MontaVista Software and the company's sales and distribution channels worldwide. CEE 3.1 provides customers with the MontaVista Linux kernel, software updates, deployment components, utilities, development tools, access to the MontaVista Zone (a customer portal), comprehensive technical support and access to hands-on Linux training classes.

A future upgrade of CEE based on the new Linux kernel 2.6 will be released later this year. For more information about CEE, please visit http://www.mvista.com/cee.

About MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition (CEE) enhances Linux with dynamic power management, rich consumer-focused networking support and consumer-grade reliability. It is designed specifically to address the needs of consumer electronics device manufacturers. CEE forms the foundation of solution stacks from software partners in key mobile, home and automotive vertical markets.

CEE is tailored to the demands of highly constrained mobile devices, which require low power consumption, restricted memory size and short boot and resume times. In addition to the complete cross development environment that MontaVista provides with all of its three Linux Editions, CEE adds new developer tools for tuning system performance to enable higher quality end-user experiences.

MontaVista Linux Consumer Electronics Edition, based on MontaVista-licensed as well as open source software, is application-compatible with and incorporates all the benefits of the MontaVista flagship systems software product, MontaVista Linux Professional Edition. CEE includes the fully preemptible MontaVista Linux kernel and real-time scheduling, small footprint targets and flash-based journaling file systems.



CEE incorporates file system enhancements and new tools to measure performance, system timing and memory size, as well as streaming media optimizations. It integrates with the J2ME compatible WebSphere Micro Environment from IBM, and graphics packages such as Qt/Embedded from Trolltech and MontaVista Graphics.

About MontaVista DevRocket

MontaVista DevRocket 1.0 is a fully integrated and graphical development environment designed to facilitate system software and applications development. MontaVista DevRocket, based on Eclipse technology, provides a common look-and-feel across development host platforms including Windows, Solaris and Linux. MontaVista DevRocket is built on the latest Eclipse 2.1 base, letting customers and ISVs take full advantage of the Eclipse platform, including third-party development work contributed by the Eclipse community, as well as a multitude of Eclipse-supported tools.

Developers can code in C or C++ and use MontaVista DevRocket to jump-start development through the automation of many project tasks. In addition to integrating core development capabilities such as compilation, editing and debugging, DevRocket provides easy-to-use project wizards designed to automate common embedded development activities. These project wizards simplify complex and lengthy tasks, freeing up valuable project time, which allows developers to focus on areas of product differentiation and speed products to market. Developers can configure and build deployable platform images, by selecting and scaling content based on a particular project's needs. They can right-size applications, trace and analyze system events, and identify and remedy memory leaks.

About MontaVista Software, Inc.

MontaVista Software is a leading global supplier of systems software and development tools for intelligent connected devices and associated infrastructure. MontaVista powers the embedded revolution by providing Open Source GNU/Linux-based software solutions. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system pioneer James Ready, MontaVista offers a family of products that address software developer needs encompassing applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer electronics. MontaVista products include MontaVista Linux Professional, Consumer Electronics and Carrier Grade Editions. MontaVista DevRocket, a powerful integrated development environment, delivers state-of-the-art development tools across all the product editions. MontaVista Graphics offers a rich GUI development tools platform.

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

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