Splashtop

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Splashtop
Website	www.splashtop.com
Company/ developer	DeviceVM
OS family	Linux
Source model	Proprietary^[1]
Latest unstable release	Community Preview v0.9.0.1 / before 2007/10/06^[2]
Marketing target	Embedded
Supported platforms	x86
Kernel type	Monolithic kernel, Linux
Working state	Development

Splashtop is a commercial Linux distribution targeting PC motherboard vendors and other device manufacturers.^[3] It is developed by DeviceVM.^[4]

It uses Bootsplash, SquashFS, Blackbox, SCIM and the Linux kernel 2.6.

1 Concept
2 Features
3 Internals
4 Motherboards featuring Splashtop
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Concept

Distinct from most Linux distributions, Splashtop is intended to be integrated on a read-only device and shipped with the hardware, rather than installed by the user. The user can install another operating system but always has this one ready to boot, in case the other one is broken, or in case web browsing and chatting is enough. It boots in about 5 seconds.^[5] It is thus marketed as "instant-on."

An "instant-on" operating system offers many advantages over a traditional operating system:

It boots much faster.
It is less vulnerable to malware as the system is mostly read-only.
It allows for diskless computers.
It is lighter but sufficient for running a web desktop and web applications.

[edit] Features

Splashtop features a graphical user interface, a web browser based on Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and a Skype VoIP client software.^[5]

[edit] Internals

Splashtop seems to work with a 512MB flash memory embedded on the PC motherboard.^[6] A proprietary core engine starts at the BIOS boot and loads a specialized Linux distribution called a "Virtual Appliance Environment" (VAE). While running this VAE, the user can launch "Virtual Appliances" (VA). Skype is a VA, for instance.^[7]

[edit] Motherboards featuring Splashtop

As of April 2008, Splashtop is known to be used on the following ASUS motherboards, and on these it is rebranded as Express Gate:^[8]

P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi AP @n
P5E3 Premium/WiFi AP @n
M3N-HT Deluxe/Mempipe
M3N-HT Deluxe/HDMI
M3N-H/HDMI
M3N-HD/HDMI
M3A-H/HDMI
P5N64 WS Professional
P5Q family (P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-WS, P5Q3 Deluxe, P5Q-E)
Asus Eee Box

In May 2008 ASUS announced they want to eventually use Splashtop across their entire motherboard product portfolio^[9]. Numerous Splashtop-enabled motherboards, desktops, and laptops will be available internationally in 2008.