ARM chippies cooperate on Linux ( a slimmed down Linux )

The Register ^ | 3rd June 2010 21:29 GMT | Timothy Prickett Morgan

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Does the Linux operating system need yet another distro? No. But a bunch of people interested in the ARM RISC processors used in mobile computers and netbooks — and hopefully someday soon inside of servers just to scare the hell out of Intel — are ganging up to create a unified foundation for ARM-based distros called Linaro.

At the Computex trade show in Tapei, Taiwan today, Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Texas Instruments announced a non-profit software company called Linaro, which they are funding to create a single foundation for ARM-specific Linux variants. This is not a distro tuned for the complex x64 architecture and the devices it serves, but for the simpler (and many would argue more elegant) ARM processors that are taking over the IT business from a new bottom, as Intel's x86 and then x64 chips (with a little help from Advanced Micro Devices) had been doing for the past several decades.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

i guess this is an Android competitor.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Note from the bottom of the article:

***********************************************EXCERPT*******************************************

Correction: This story originally gave the impression that Linaro was its own distribution, which it is not. Rather, is the the foundation of an ARM-based Linux that Linux distributors can adopt. ®

[ShadowAce]

[fremont_steve]

No - what they are working on is “middleware” that ALL ARM based distributions will benefit from. Things like drivers for ARM peripherals, etc. I am in the business of designing ARM SOCs and this is a good thing for EVERY avenue of ARM based product - from Smart phones to routers

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the info....this is gonna be a revolution....

[antiRepublicrat]

Android will probably be using this for its underlying Linux.