Welcome to LinuxDevices.com's Embedded Linux Newsletter July 29, 2004 by Rick Lehrbaum Editor-in-chief

SPECIAL FEATURE: Windows, Linux grapple in Great Gadget Smack-Down! -- Impassioned battles between Linux and Windows partisans are no longer confined to the desktop and server arenas. With the growing ubiquity of smart devices, the device arena offers action every bit as intense, justifying massive vendor technology investments, high-dollar PR campaigns, and generous helpings of technical hyperbole from both corners, which contribute to a pugilistic aura not unlike that found at a WWF wrestling championship. What really matters for the spectators, though, are the actual devices produced by the respective competitors. We therefore decided to hold the first-ever "Great Gadget Smack-Down," pitting OS vs. OS. Not on paper, according to oft-conflicting market share estimates, feature and architecture claims, or purported time-to-market benefits -- but instead, where it really counts: based on which OS powers the coolest and best gadgets. Hop in your ringside seat and get ready for the action!

NEWS FLASH: Motorola announces another Linux/Java phone -- Motorola announced its third mobile phone based on Linux and Java software. The A780, expected to ship by year end, will woo enterprise and home users with features such as a PDA-like quarter-VGA color touchscreen, 240Kbps GPRS data download speeds, Bluetooth networking and synchronization, PDF and Microsoft Office file viewing, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, mp3 playback, 48MB of removable TransFlash storage, and more.

Windows media laptop plays with embedded Linux -- Toshiba launched a laptop that is widely rumored to offer the choice of booting Windows Media Center Edition 2004, for full PC capabilities, or a quick-starting embedded Linux environment, for instant-on, appliance-like TV tuner, DVD player, CD player, and remote control capabilities. Although Toshiba would not comment on the pre-boot media environment used in the Qosmio, it appears to be similar to an off-the-shelf pre-boot Linux-based media player environment from InterVideo, which claims to be marketing its solution to Asian laptop makers.

Next-gen NIC chips woo developers with Linux drivers -- Siliquent introduced a pair of chips supporting 4GB and 10GB Ethernet, respectively, along with iWarp, iSCSI, and TCP/IP Offload. The chips target equipment for "unified Ethernet networks" integrating LAN, remote storage, and IPC (inter-process communication) traffic, and they are available with reference cards and Linux drivers.

OTHER NEWSWORTHY ITEMS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE PAST WEEK . . .

• Online petition rallies developers around open standards
  
• SDK combines Linux with RTOS for telecom/datacom apps
  
• Free real-time Linux distro gains cross-platform GUI framework
  
• Real-time Linux heats up rugged XScale PC/104 CPU board
  
• Graphical GNU toolsuite reinstates SuperH, adds NEC V85x
  
• Silicon vendor aims Linux 2.6 distro at network infrastructure
  
• Open source IP services vendor nets $5M in funding
  
• PISA SBC powered by latest Intel mobile chips
  
• Latest Mobile Pentium chips power PCI-104 SBC
  

. . . and that's not all. Click here for the latest breaking news.

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You can access this year's previous newsletters here:   Jul. 22,   Jul. 15,   Jul. 08,   Jul. 01,   Jun. 24,   Jun. 17,   Jun. 10,   Jun. 3,   May 27,   May 20,   May 13,   May 6,   Apr. 29,   Apr. 22,   Apr. 15,   Apr. 8,   Apr. 1,   Mar. 25,   Mar. 18,   Mar. 11,   Mar. 4,   Feb. 26,   Feb. 19,   Feb. 12,   Feb. 5,   Jan. 29,   Jan. 22,   Jan. 15,   Jan. 8

Be sure to stop by LinuxDevices.com -- "the Embedded Linux Portal" -- for the latest news, articles, links, forums, products, companies, and buzz in the fast-moving "post-PC" world of Linux-based intelligent devices, Internet appliances, and embedded systems. You can contact us here.

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