Watch out, the Centibots are invading LinuxWorld -- Via Technologies will demonstrate Linux-based robots developed by SRI International at next week's LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco. At 3 pm on Wednesday, August 6, the "Centibots" will conduct a search and rescue mission for a hidden penguin doll during a special event in the LinuxWorld "Taste of Linux" pavilion. Story
Consortium forms to standardize mobile application processors -- A new industry consortium launched this week with the goal of defining and promoting open hardware and software standards for interfaces to mobile application processors. The group, known as the Mobile Industry Processor Interface Alliance, or "MIPI", was co-announced by founding members ARM, Nokia, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments. By establishing consistency in application processor interfaces, MIPI hopes to simplify implementation and design of hardware and software, promoting reuse and compatibility in mobile devices, thereby accelerating time-to-market. Story
SIM-based WLAN authentication for open platforms -- Using SIM for WLAN authentication may have many advantages, but security threats must also be carefully considered. This article by four members of Intel's "Emerging Platforms Lab" provides a brief overview of the authentication process in a GSM network, and then describes a possible method of WLAN authentication using SIM cards. It also goes through various SIM security issues, and describes an assortment of reader attachments and their advantages and disadvantages. Story
TimeSys spotlights surge in embedded Linux growth -- TimeSys announced that its revenues and design wins for the second quarter of 2003 increased approximately 130% over the prior quarter, expanding on the momentum the company has experienced since the middle of 2002. Additionally, comparing the first half of 2003 with the second half of 2002, design wins grew 260% and revenue nearly tripled, growing 295%. Story
Khronos releases OpenGL ES embedded graphics standard v1.0 -- The Khronos Group announced that it has ratified the OpenGL ES 1.0 royalty-free open standard for advanced 2D and 3D graphics in embedded systems including mobile and handheld devices, and that the API specification is now available for free download. OpenGL ES defines subset profiles of OpenGL; OpenGL and OpenGL ES are royalty-free, open standard APIs that enable authoring and playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. Story
Open Group mulls open source, solicits comments -- The Open Group used to be known as the industry association for Unix. They haven't always had the best name in the Open Source community, mostly because community folks didn't like their handling of the Motif GUI toolkit, which stayed proprietary for too long. Had Motif gone free earlier, there might not have been a need to create GNOME or KDE. But the Open Group leadership now realizes that they must be fully involved in Open Source . . . Story
Building a Linux-based wireless access point -- This online article at IBM's developerWorks website explains how to build a basic wireless access point running Linux. The article shows how to build an access point that operates as a bridge -- simply forwarding packets between the wireless network and a local Ethernet. This allows wireless devices to simply be turned on and attached using an existing network -- no new configuration, no special routing. Story
Carrier Grade Linux assists Euro air traffic control -- C.N.S. Systems AB announced that it has used MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition as the operating system platform within the ground station portion of a new air traffic control system in Europe. According to C.N.S., the integrated system of ground and mobile units uses the VDL Mode 4 digital radio link, a new standard for air traffic control in Europe, to provide surveillance, navigation, and communication services between ground stations and mobile units, or among mobile units that are either mounted in aircraft or in vehicles operating in airport areas. Story
Using embedded Linux in residential gateways -- This article at CommsDesign examines the growing use of Linux as an embedded operating system in residential gateway devices. Long the domain of proprietary embedded operating systems, residential gateway designs are now moving toward Linux, which is excelling there due to its "exceptional stability, scalability, suitability to task, access to source code, and overall value." Story
IBM toolkit targets "multimodal" apps to Sharp Zaurus 5600 -- IBM announced the availability of a new toolkit for developing multimodal (XHTML + voice) applications for mobile Linux-based devices. Developers can use the toolkit to create multimodal applications -- programs that combine GUI, speech recognition, and text-to-speech functions within a single application -- and deploy them on the Linux-based Sharp Zaurus 5600. Story
VDC report: embedded database market highly fragmented -- The database market for embedded systems and devices is highly fragmented, according to Market research firm Venture Development Corp. (VDC). DBMS vendors lack recognition, brand awareness, and domain experience in the embedded systems market, in addition to resources to market directly to embedded systems developers. Story
Other noteworthy news items and announcements from the past week . . .
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You can access 2003's newsletters here: Jul. 24, Jul. 17, Jul. 10, Jul. 3, Jun. 26, Jun. 19, Jun. 12, Jun. 5, May 29, May 22, May 15, May 8, May 1, Apr. 24, Apr. 17, Apr. 10, Apr. 3, Mar. 27, Mar. 20, Mar. 13, Mar. 6, Feb. 27, Feb. 20, Feb. 13, Feb. 6, Jan. 30, Jan. 23, Jan. 16, Jan. 9, Jan. 2
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