San Jose, Calif., May 21, 2009 -- Embedded Alley, a leading provider of embedded
Linux® and Android solutions, today announced the introduction of a new version of the
company’s Development System for Linux to target intelligent device applications based
on the Freescale Semiconductor’s i.MX31 Multimedia Applications Processor. The Embedded
Alley Development System, a software and services offering, is designed to help
manufacturers (OEMs) develop and deploy feature-rich devices and differentiating,
value-added applications for consumer electronics, medical devices, industrial control
and instrumentation. The Development System for the i.MX31 also features new tools
and capabilities for tracking, integrating and building with OEM-specified open source
(see accompanying news release).
Targeting the Freescale i.MX31 Product Development Kit (PDK), the Embedded Alley
development system helps OEMs integrate and update Linux and other embedded platform
components into a unified tool kit. Intelligent device developers can easily add
open source packages to their own applications and system code and go on to create development,
test and production deployment flash images.
“The Freescale i.MX31 applications processor offers OEMs a rich set of capabilities.
Embedded Alley enables i.MX31 developers to create a wide range of intelligent devices
and differentiating applications with the chip,” commented Matt Porter, Embedded Alley
chief architect. “Moreover, our recent work in the mainline ARM® Linux source tree enables
our customers, and the open source community at large, to get the most out of
i.MX31 silicon, software and services.”
“Embedded Alley provides a straight path to market by combining stable open source
distributions and consulting practices that touch all phases of OEM product life cycles,”
commented Ken Obuszewski, product management director for Freescale’s Multimedia
Applications Division . “The Embedded Alley Development System and the Freescale
i.MX31 offer a compelling platform for next-generation intelligent device designs.”
OEMs developing for embedded Linux previously had to choose between two opposing approaches to acquiring a Linux-based platform and tools: Roll-Your-Own (RYO) and pre-packaged commercial Linux. With RYO, OEMs download project source code, build and integrate the Linux kernel, libraries, device drivers, user space utilities and cross development tools, involving management and build of up to 40 million lines of source code. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) Linux tool kits offer OEMs pre-built versions of
a Linux-based platform and tools, but sacrifice the freedom and flexibility of real open
source. Vendor tool kits, even those aligned with public distributions, lock developers
into fixed, often outdated versions of open source components, limiting interoperation
with OEM build systems and compatibility with 3rd party software.
The Embedded Alley Development System gives developers a middle path between the burden of RYO and the strictures of COTS Linux tool kits. The Embedded Alley offering reflects the dynamic reality of embedded open source, where OEMs may originally acquire kernel, libraries and tools from a range of sources, including kernel.org and individual project repositories, semiconductor and board vendors, OS suppliers and ISVs. OEMs then usually need to integrate newer versions of some or all platform components to meet system and application requirements and find themselves facing support limitations from commercial Linux suppliers or integration challenges with RYO.
The Embedded Alley Development System starts by delivering stable, current versions of
the Linux kernel, libraries, tools and utilities – direct from open source project repositories.
Next, the Development System lets OEMs configure exactly which versions the Linux kernel, patches and other software they need to meet project requirements, and performs dependency and compatibility checks across all platform components. At any stage, OEMs can build and integrate new versions of existing components and/or entirely new software and tools. They can also engage Embedded Alley to customize the Development System on their behalf as a services engagement.
Freescale i.MX31 Processor Support
The Embedded Alley Development System supports a range of capabilities of the Freescale
i.MX31 Applications Processor and of the PDK reference board hosting it. The i.MX31 features an ARM1136TM CPU and integrated 3-D graphics processor. A highly integrated System-on-a-Chip (SoC), it combines a range of peripherals and capabilities, including an Image Processing Unit (IPU), CMOS/CCD Interface, Vector Floating Point
Co-Processor (VFP), RISC-based DMA controller, and rich connectivity and storage options
(WLAN, BlueTooth, HS USB, ATA-6, MMC/SDIO, etc.).
Availability
The Embedded Alley Development System for Linux-based Devices is available immediately
from Embedded Alley Solutions. Hosted on Ubuntu workstations, the Development
ARM and MIPS architectures. Read more about the Development System on the Embedded
Alley web site at www.embeddedalley.com. Contact Embedded Alley for
supported target hardware configurations, pricing and for information on additional customization
services.
About Embedded Alley
Embedded Alley enables its customers to develop and deliver winning products by bridging the gap between open source and commercial software, providing Linux, middleware and expertise to OEMs building a broad range of mobile and embedded devices and communications infrastructure equipment. The company also recently announced the new Embedded Alley Development System for Android, which will be available later this month, May 2009.
Founded in 2004, Embedded Alley is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with operations
worldwide. To learn more, please visit www.embeddedalley.com
