Embedded Linux

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Embedded Linux is the use of a Linux operating system in an embedded computer systems such as a mobile phones, personal digital assistants, media players and other consumer electronics devices, networking equipment, machine control, industrial automation, navigation equipment and medical instruments. According to a VDC survey, Linux was used by 18% of embedded engineers.^[1]

1 Differences from other Linux operating systems
2 Development
3 Special interest groups
- 3.1 Commercial Embedded Hardware and Platforms
- 3.2 Vendors
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Differences from other Linux operating systems

Unlike desktop and server versions of Linux, embedded Linux is designed for devices with relatively limited resources, such as smaller sizes of RAM and much more limited secondary storage. Embedded Linux devices often have smaller flash memory-based secondary storage instead of a hard drive. Embedded Linux is also usually purpose-made for the required application and target hardware, and thus attempts to be the optimized form of the Linux kernel for that application. Most optimizations are done to make the OS a real-time operating system.

[edit] Development

Embedded Linux has been ported to a variety of processors not suited for use as the processor of desktop or server computers.

It is an alternative to the—usually proprietary—bespoke assembler or C software largely used in embedded development. Advantages compared to other embedded operating systems include: the source code can be modified and redistributed; relatively small footprint (a typical installation may require less than two megabytes of memory); no royalty or licensing costs; mature and stable; and a large support base. Embedded Linux systems combine the Linux kernel with a small set of free software utilities. The glibc is often replaced as the C standard library by less resource-consuming alternatives such as dietlibc, uClibc or Newlib.

[edit] Special interest groups

Motorola RAZR², an advanced embedded system using embedded Linux

Several industry groups have formed to foster use of Linux in embedded applications. These include: the CE Linux Forum, founded in 2003 to aid the inclusion of embedded features in the main Linux kernel branch; the Linux Foundation (formerly Open Source Development Labs); the Linux Phone Standards Forum, created in 2004 to pursue a standard applications environment for Linux-based mobile phones and "converged devices"; the LiMo Foundation, founded in 2006 by Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, DoCoMo, and Vodafone to establish a set of interfaces and standard reference components to improve the third-party mobile phone developer base; and the San Francisco, California-based Embedded Linux Consortium, which, until its 2005 closure and transfer of operations to the Linux Foundation, included IBM, Intel, LynuxWorks, and others, and focused on application programming interface standardization. The Embedded Linux Consortium produced the ELCPS (Embedded Linux Consortium Platform Specification) which was intended as a guide to developers of embedded Linux devices as to what functionality should be included in order to provide a standard platform supporting application portability.

[edit] Commercial Embedded Hardware and Platforms

Motorola mobile telephones, generally based on MontaVista Linux, include the RAZR² V8, RAZR² V9, ROKR E2, A780, E680, A1200, Motorola U9,Motorola E8,and others
Openmoko's Neo1973
Nokia's N810 N800
Google's Android
Linksys WRT54G version 4 or earlier
the Panasonic P901i
NEC N901ic telephones
Philips LPC3180
UTstarcom [DV007]