Timesys, a provider of LinuxLink, a software development framework for building custom embedded Linux based products, has revealed that LinuxLink would be available for the new OMAP-L137 processor from Texas Instruments (TI). This reportedly represents the first LinuxLink release for the low-power OMAP-L1x applications processors and will be followed by support for the OMAP-L138 processor.
Reportedly, LinuxLink allows customers to choose from the latest GNU-based toolchains enabled with uClibc and glibc libraries optimised for the ARM926EJ-S core. The Linux kernels initially available through LinuxLink are both the 2.6.18 and the recent 2.6.30 versions.
Device drivers are included for the full range of internal OMAP-L137 peripherals as well as for external devices present on TI’s OMAP-L137 evaluation module (EVM).
The company said that customers are already using LinuxLink to develop OMAP-L137 processor based designs such as medical instrumentation and industrial control systems. The company claimed that LinuxLink allows customers to accelerate development of products for these applications by providing access to relevant middleware and packages such as lmsensors, Alsa, GStreamer, Qt/Embedded for Linux and bluez.
The company added that Linux developers can take advantage of both the online build system and the desktop-hosted version of LinuxLink. Reportedly, the desktop version offers more flexibility than any other Linux build platform by allowing users to integrate third-party packages, custom applications and proprietary software.
LinuxLink’s update service automatically notifies customers of changes to any components used in their project, said company.
LinuxLink users reportedly have access to the Eclipse-based TimeStorm IDE tools for application development and debugging. According to the company, these development tools help customers ensure the quality, reliability and performance of their final product.
The OMAP-L1x low-power devices include a TMS320C674x digital signal processor (DSP) as well as the ARM926EJ-S core. Reportedly, LinuxLink subscribers use the Timesys environment to develop the Linux platform for the ARM core, while leveraging TI’s DSP tools to develop and debug their DSP code.
