ARM, SoC vendors float Linaro

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA: Linaro, a non-profit company has taken shape, thanks to the coming together of ARM and five system-on-chip (SoC) vendors.

The SoC vendors include Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments.

These companies have jointly given shape to Linaro, which will aim at providing resources and industry alignment for open source software developers using Linux on ARM-based chips.

According to a report, the new entity would be working with Linux-based distributions, such as Android, LiMo, MeeGo, Ubuntu and webOS, to create regular releases of optimized tools and foundation software that can be used widely by the industry.

This is expected to prompt device makers to speed up development time, up performance levels and cut down on engineering time.

It has been pointed out that engineers at Linaro will work on open source projects that relate to tools, kernel, graphics and boot code.

Besides, Linaro has also lined up a strategy as to work in tandem with the Linux Foundation to align on core operating principles. It is being seen by the industry as a venture that will greatly simplify the process of making Linux-based consumer devices available to market. With standardization of many a core software component happening, Linaro’s efforts will also spur companies to concentrate focus on creating great user experiences on embedded devices through to smartphones, it is believed.