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Free Linux Microprocessor*
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| Here’s the deal. Altera, the world’s second-best-known FPGA company, has
| struck a deal with Wind River Systems, the world’s second-best-known
| embedded-software company, to port Linux to Altera’s NIOS II processor. And
| since NIOS is free, you’ve got yourself a free 32-bit microprocessor capable
| of running a genuine full-on multitasking Linux operating system.
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http://www.embeddedtechjournal.com/articles_2009/20090303_free.htm
Related:
Embedded Linux has more friends than you may know
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| Sony recently announced that one of its BRAVIA LCD TV factories will double
| production from 2 million TV sets per year to 4 million to meet growing
| demand in Europe. Sony has sold more than 20 million of these TVs, and
| they're all built with embedded Linux.
|
| So what? Embedded Linux is no surprise. Sony and tens of thousands of other
| companies, from huge to tiny, use embedded Linux every day to deliver
| successful products in every market. That is not news.
|
| Ten years ago, though, embedded Linux was a surprising-even shocking-idea to
| most people. Back in 1998, fresh from victory in the RTOS industry, I
| introduced the idea of building a software company to make Linux a suitable
| OS for developing smart devices. When I told people the idea, they gawked as
| if I was a few lines short of compilable code.
|
| "You want to build a company on software that's available for free?" I was
| asked. "Based on the gigantically bloated Unix OS? And with some oddball GPL
| license? How fast do you expect people to kick you out of their office?"
|
| Every market survey showed that the demand for embedded Linux was zero. When
| we released our first product, industry experts agreed that nobody needed it.
| Embedded Linux won't work because it is "too big, too slow, and not
| real-time," said the head of one RTOS company. The president of another
| derided embedded Linux as "a royal pain in the ass," so no developer would
| ever use it.
|
| I took heart from a quote attributed to Mohandas Gandhi: "First they ignore
| you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."
|
| [...]
|
| Analyst firms don't agree on how many device engineers use embedded Linux,
| but they all say the number is substantial: 21% of developers use embedded
| Linux, according to last year's Embedded Systems Design survey; 36.7%,
| according to current research by Embedded Market Forecasters. This April, VDC
| reported that Linux is now the leading embedded OS. It shouldn't be
| surprising. After all, commercial Linux vendors succeed because they
| understand what design engineers are looking for.
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http://www.embedded.com/columns/guest/207602734
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