The new company will focus on the development of ARM compatible software for open source OS’ to run on Arm based hardware
Tech biggies which include IBM, ARM, Freescale, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and TI have today announced forming a new company Linaro. The new company is formed with the aim of helping the open source community to develop ARM based software for a range of devices CPU, smartphone, tablets etc.
This newly formed company has plans to make investments in open source projects which are useful for all the Linux-based distributions such as Android, LiMo, MeeGo,Ubuntu, and WebOS.
The company will work as a stable and optimized base for developers to develop new optimized tools, in addition of creating kernel, middleware, and more validated for a host of SoC’s after every six months.
Linaro will offer software and tools which will target a wide range of markets including smartphones, tablets, DTVs, automotive entertainment system etc.
Company will release its first product ‘tool release’ in November 2010.
Commenting on the move, Tom Lantzsch, CEO, Linaro said, “The dramatic growth of open source software development can now be seen in internet-based, always-connected mobile and consumer products. Linaro will help accelerate this trend further by increasing investment on key open source projects and providing industry alignment with the community to deliver the best Linux-based products for the benefit of the consumer.”
The open source engineering efforts of Linaro’s founders ARM, IBM, Freescale, Samsung, ST-Ericsson will be aligned within the newly formed company.
ARM CEO, Warren East said, “ARM and our partners have a long history of working with, and supporting, open source software development for complex SoCs based on the ARM architecture.” “As a founding member of Linaro, we are working together with the broader open source community to accelerate innovation for the next generation of computing, focusing on delivering a rich connected experience across the diversity of devices in our daily lives.”
Talking to CNET News, Lantzsch said, “Imagine two tablet makers going to the same silicon vendor. Let’s say Texas Instruments in this case. And both want to get a tablet into the market and both want to do that, for example, on Android. What you’ll find is there are differences in the versions (of Android). And then you’ll have other tablet makers wanting to do a tablet on Chrome or MeeGo.”
He further said that Linaro aims to help companies with such situations to streamline the process of making a new product launch in the market.