BANGALORE, INDIA: Embedded Linux has been growing in strength with every passing day. We have been witnessing a drastic increase in the adoption of embedded Linux in mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), media players, consumer electronics devices, networking equipment and medical instruments, as well.

Several industry groups have also been formed to foster the use of Linux in embedded applications, with SQL Star being one among them.

The EMBINUX from SQL Star enables companies to design and develop next-generation devices based on open-standards based technologies and allows developers to fully integrate high quality Open Source Stacks and Libraries with the existing development platform.

In an interaction with Abhigna N.G. of CIOL, Archan Paul, chief architect & director engineering, explains about the future and opportunities of embedded Linux and SQL Star offering to the open source community.

CIOL: Can you elaborate on Embinux? How does Embinux help companies reduce cost in development?

Archan Paul: EMBINUX is a complete embedded Linux platform specifically designed and optimized for wireless handsets, mobile phones and smart consumer electronics devices. EMBINUX's highly optimized kernel, libraries, stacks and integrated development environment accelerate product development process, and helps the OEM to reach the consumer market in the least possible time.

EMBINUX's well-tested code-base and open standard based libraries significantly reduce the cost of development and integration of software modules. Advanced real-time technology in EMBINUX enables single processor to handle baseband and application processing in handsets. Highly optimized kernel and protocol stacks enable manufactures to use less RAM and Flash for the handset and reduce BOM cost.

CIOL:  What are the solutions that SQL Star offers to the open source community?

AP: The increasing diversity of development tools and device application requirements has made life more complicated for developers. Determining which platform to use to meet development requirements should not be an additional source of stress and risk. Cost-effectiveness, excellent quality, and open standards — these are just a few benefits of open source technologies that have made Linux the right choice for many device software developers.

CIOL:  How do you see the current state of embedded Linux, as a market and as a technology?

AP: As handset manufactures continue to build and deploy new features and services as a means of increasing their business in a matured and increasingly competitive market, there is a requirement of platform, which can meet the demand. EMBINUX is designed to meet these requirements. EMBINUX features hard real-time performance, advanced power management, fast startup, small footprint and rich user interface, which is essential for next generation devices.

CIOL:  What challenges do embedded Linux OS, tools, and services vendors face?

AP: Today's embedded developers are facing the challenge of ever-increasing system complexity. A typical embedded design may incorporate various analog signals, high and low-speed serial digital communication and microprocessor buses, just to name a few. Digital design teams' are being asked to develop embedded systems with increased functionality and higher performance in smaller packages at a lower cost, all under very aggressive development schedules.

Fortunately, design tools have allowed developers to manage this increased complexity; however, developers are requiring increased performance and new capabilities from their debug tools to find those elusive problems that can cause delays and thereby disrupt the entire development schedule and threaten their product's time-to-market.

CIOL:  What are the opportunities do you see for Linux in the embedded devices in India?

AP: The royalty cost of a handset will benefit Indian consumers. The development time will reduce for handset manufacturers as well.

CIOL:  How do you see future of an embedded Linux developer in India?

AP: Embedded system is fast becoming a force to reckon with and there is a huge demand for good developers for this domain. Opportunities are simply, unlimited with very high growth potential for any embedded Linux developer.

CIOL:  Using the EMBINUX platform, by what percent is the BoM reduced to significantly impact end user prices?

AP: The bill of material will reduce by >50 percent.

CIOL:  Who are the handset/device vendors currently using EMBINUX?

AP: We have vendors from Japan and North America who are currently using EMBINUX. However, we cannot disclose the names as a policy decision.

CIOL:  Do you have a preference for working with Japanese handset vendors? Are these vendors developing 3G/4G mobile devices?

AP: Japanese technology companies are the global innovators in consumer electronics and in other areas. Japan has long been a leader in embedded appliances and is certain to play an important role in establishing Linux as a key embedded OS. We have plans to address the Japanese vendors, especially the CDMA vendors, who have been developing 3G/4G mobile devices.

EMBINUX is compatible with several frameworks, including Android, Qtopia, LiMo, etc., and thus, can be used to develop next generation mobile devices.