Monta Vista debuts vertical-market optimizations of Linux 6

'Market Specific Distributions' cover core networking, Android, automotive, multimedia

Loring Wirbel, Contributing Editor -- EDN, 10/29/2009 6:32:00 PM

MontaVista Software Inc. will be rolling out several Market Specific Distributions (MSDs) this fall for its Linux 6 OS.  MSDs will be offered for industrial automation, Android platforms, multicore networking, automotive, multifunction printers, and portable multimedia devices.  The MSDs will cover processors from Intel Corp., Freescale Semiconductor Inc., Cavium Inc., and Texas Instruments Inc.

All versions offer basic Linux 6 kernel services.  The automotive, personal multimedia, and Android versions feature advanced power management, 2D/3D graphics, semiconductor-based codec development, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.  Multimedia and automotive versions also feature CAN as an option, a networking option also featured for automotive.

Multicore networking includes library support for optimizing multiple cores, as well as SCTP, OpenSwan, libpcap, and IPsec.  Multifunction printer supports bigphysarea commands, and mass storage extensions for larger hard disk drives.