MontaVista claims RTOS-caliber performance on latest Linux platform

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 4/4/2007

Embedded Linux player MontaVista Software has announced at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) in San Jose, Calif. this week the release of MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 5.0, the latest version of what the company said is the industry's most widely deployed commercial Linux and development platform.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company claims the new platform provides the most advanced native Linux real-time capabilities to date, with performance matching that of traditional real-time operating systems (RTOS) for what the company said is the first time in the industry. The new version features an updated kernel of the Linux OS, Linux 2.6.18, which provides integration with the latest real-time patches from Ingo Molnar, a leading contributor to Linux kernel development.

According to the company, the latest release of MontaVista Linux Professional Edition offers average response times in the five microsecond range—which now allows Linux to address the real-time requirements on a multitude of devices previously only serviced by proprietary real-time operating systems.

In addition, MontaVista claims its Linux Professional Edition 5.0 offers the smallest footprint of any general use Linux platform. Two configurations are being offered: one based upon standard glibc library, and another built on the size-conscious uClibc library. According to the company, building with uClibc enables a total deployed system footprint under three megabytes, representing a 75 percent reduction compared with traditional embedded Linux platforms.

Edition 5.0 also introduces a new application developer kit (ADK). ADK 5.0 delivers a set of plug-ins for Eclipse, the open source integrated development environment, which aims to streamline and automate embedded Linux development. The release also includes analysis tools and a comprehensive virtual target execution environment.

Thanks in part to the Linux community's focus on getting up to speed with RTOS, some analysts say the Linux OS is set for a major boost into the lucrative mobile phone market. Market research firm ABI Research forecasts that by 2012, more than 127 million devices will be enabled with a commercial Linux OS, up from just 8.1 million in 2007.