Embedded Linux

From John Peterson in the CALL FOR VOTES for comp.os.linux.embedded: "It is becoming apparent that the Linux operating system has a very bright future in the area of embedded applications; internet appliances, wireless internet access, personal digital assistants, television set top boxes, medical instruments, dedicated control systems, etc. The potential for the growth of Linux in this area is highlighted by the fact that roughly 95% of all newly manufactured microcomputer chips are used for embedded applications."

Resources

• Proposed news group: comp.os.linux.embedded
• "The SA-1110/SA-1111 development platform is designed for fast time-to-market development of handheld, palm-size devices, wireless and tethered Internet appliances. Target applications include smart/3G multimedia phones, PC companions, palm-size devices, internet tablets, vertical application devices, global positioning systems (GPS), handheld game consoles and digital audio products."
• uCLinux Matthew: "One excellent platform for IrDA is the embedded devices market. ucLinux has made some real breakthroughs lately with an embedded Linux kernel. Maybe one day ucLinux will be running on my TV's remote, using Linux IR to switch channels and transfer data."
• Lineo.
• ViewML (Viewable Markup Language) is the first freely available, open source Web browser targeted specifically at the embedded Linux platform.
• THE LINUX-BASED COOL DEVICES QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE - a catalog of end products in which Linux serves as the embedded operating system, including webpads, cell phones, set-top boxes, Internet appliances, entertainment appliances, and other intelligent devices.
• THE EMBEDDED LINUX OVERVIEW QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE - includes an introduction to Embedded Linux including a discussion of the features and benefits of using it, an index to the other sections of LinuxDevices.com's Embedded Linux Quick Reference Guide series, and a reading list of recommended articles and whitepapers.
• THE EMBEDDED LINUX DISTRIBUTIONS QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE - Distributions and implementations of the Linux kernel and associated system software components that are tailored to fit the limited resources and other constraints of a wide range of intelligent devices and embedded systems.
• THE EMBEDDED LINUX GUI/WINDOWING QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE - windowing and graphics software solutions that support Linux- based intelligent devices and embedded systems, including graphical user interfaces (GUIs), window managers, and browsers.

Mailing Lists

• linuxppc-embedded mailing list
• uclinux mailing list
• linuxCE mailing list
• linux-embedded mailing list
• Real Time Linux mailing list
• SA-1100' Linux mailing list
• Yopy mailing list

Embedded Debian

The goal of the Embedded Debian Project is to make Debian GNU/Linux a natural choice for embedded Linux and to advance the embedded Linux state of the art faster and more effectively.

Embedded Debian is an independent project and is not formally associated with Debian. We plan on working closely with Debian, with the goal of eventually integrating the development into the Debian mainstream. COMPLETE STORY

Debian/ARM runs on LART

The Information and Communication Theory Group of the Delft University of Technology is pleased to announce that Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 runs on their LART embedded system.

About LART

The LART is a small yet powerful embedded computer capable of running Linux, built around an Intel SA-1100 StrongARM processor.Its performance is around 250 MIPS while consuming less than 1 Watt of power.In a standard configuration it holds 32MB DRAM and 4MB Flash ROM, which is sufficient for a Linux kernel and a sizeable ramdisk image.

The hardware design files needed to build a LART are freely available under an Open Hardware-ish license. All files can be found at Debian LART.

Libraries/Tools

BusyBox

BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides minimalist replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU fileutils, shellutils, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts. BusyBox provides a fairly complete POSIX environment for any small or embedded system.

lwIP

lwIP is a lightweight implementation of the TCP/IP protocol stack. The focus of the lwIP TCP/IP implementation is to reduce RAM usage, thus making lwIP suitable for use in embedded systems with very limited resources.

uClibc

uClibc (µClibc) is a C library for embedded Linux systems. It is much smaller then the GNU C Library, but nearly all applications supported by glibc also work perfectly with uClibc. Porting applications from glibc to uClibc typically involves just recompiling the source code. uClibc supports standard Linux systems (such as x86, StrongARM, and PowerPC), and also supports MMU-less (also known as µClinux) systems, such as those based on the Coldfire, dragonball, or arm7tdmi micro-controllers.

diet libc

diet libc contains the system call wrappers and the most commonly-used functions you expect from a libc. It can be used to create small, statically-linked binaries under x86, Sparc, PPC, ARM, MIPS, PA-RISC, and Alpha-Linux.

TinyLogin

TinyLogin is a suite of tiny UNIX utilities for handling logins, user authentication, changing passwords, and otherwise maintaining users and groups on an embedded system. It also provides shadow password support to enhance system security. TinyLogin is, as the name implies, very small, and makes an excellent addition to an embedded system.