Linux 3.18 Released

Linus Torvalds released Linux Kernel 3.18 last Sunday: It’s been a quiet week, and the patch from rc7 is tiny, so 3.18 is out. I’d love to say that we’ve figured out the problem that plagues 3.17 for a couple of people, but we haven’t. At the same time, there’s absolutely no point in having everybody else twiddling their thumbs when a couple of people are actively trying to bisect an older issue, so holding up the release just didn’t make sense. Especially since that would just have then held things up entirely over the holiday break. So the merge window for 3.19 is open, and DaveJ will hopefully get his bisection done (or at least narrow things down sufficiently that we have that “Ahaa” moment) over the next week. But in solidarity with Dave (and to make my life easier too 😉 let’s try to avoid introducing any _new_ […]

Freescale Unveils QorIQ LS1043A Quad core ARM Cortex A53 Communication Processor for Fanless Networking Equipment

Freescale has introduced the QorIQ LS1043A communications processor, powered by four 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 cores, and destined to be integrated into “intelligent-edge networking equipment including security appliances, SDN (Software Designed Networks) / NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) edge platforms and other fanless, power-efficient applications.” A dual core version named LS1023A is also available. Key features of LS1043A and LS1023A SoCs: CPU – Quad (LS1043A) or Dual (LS1023A) ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit cores @ 1 GHz to 1.5 GHz with 32/32 I/D Cache KB L1 and 1 MB L2 cache. 16,000+ CoreMarks. Networking & High Speed Interfaces: Up to six 1x GbE or 1x 10GbE and five x GbE Four lane SerDes up to 10 GHz multiplexed across controllers supporting: Three PCI Express Gen 2 interfaces SATA 3.0 Interface uQUICC Engine Accelerators and Memory Control DPAA (Data Path Acceleration Architecture) Parse, Classify and Distribution Engines Integrated security engine 32-bit DDR3L/4 controller Other peripherals 3x […]

Linux 3.16 Released

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.16 over the week-end: So nothing particularly exciting happened this week, and 3.16 is out there. And as usual (previous release being the exception) that means that the merge window for 3.17 is obviously open. And for the third time in a row, the timing sucks for me, as I have travel coming up the second week of the merge window. Many other core developers will be traveling too, since it’s just before the kernel summit in Chicago. So we’ll see how the next merge window goes, but I’m not going to worry about it overmuch. If I end up not having time to do all the merges, I might delay things into the week of the kernel summit, but I’ll hope to get most of the big merging done this upcoming week before any travel takes place, so maybe it won’t come […]

Aaeon Announces CoMs, 3.5″ & mini ITX Embedded Boards Powered by Intel Bay Trail Processors

AAEON has announced the release three embedded boards and modules based on Intel Celeron J1900, N2930, N2807 and Atom E3800 series processors, which are all part of Intel’s low power Bay Trail family. EMB-BT1 is s mini-ITX board powered by Intel Atom 3825 or 3845, Gene-BT05 is a 3.5″ industrial board also based on Atom 3815/3815 or Celeron N2930 processors, and COM-BT is a series of COM Express type 6 computers-on-module. EMB-BT1 mini-ITX Board EMB-BT1 is a fanless board designed for digital signage, POS, Kiosk and networking applications among others, with the following key features: SoC – Intel Atom E3825 with 2 cores @ 1.33 GHz (TDP: 6 W) or Atom E3845 with 4 cores @ 1.91 GHz (TDP: 10W) System Memory – DDR3L-1066 MHz (3825) or DDR3L-1333 MHz (3845) Storage – Up to 2x SATA 6.0Gb/s, 2x SATA 3.0Gb/s Display – 1x VGA, 1x HDMI, 1x LVDS with dual […]

Linux Kernel 3.14 Release

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.14 yesterday: So we had a few fairly late changes that I could have done without, but the changelog from -rc8 is still pretty small, and I’m feeling pretty good about it all. If we did end up with any last-minute problems due to the final spurt of patches, they’ll be pretty specific, and it really didn’t make sense to me to delay the release without anything known pending. Much of the final spurt were either marked for stable or known regressions. So 3.14 is out there, and the merge window for 3.15 is thus open. Please do spend the time to test out 3.14, though, even if you might otherwise be in a hurry to send me your pending queue for the next release. Linus Kernel 3.13 brought a scalable block layer for high-performance SSDs, nftables, NFC payment support, squashfs performance […]

ARM TechCon 2013 Schedule – ARM Servers, Internet of Things, Multicore, Hardware and Software Optimization and More

ARM Technology Conference (TechCon) 2013 will take place on October 29 – 31, 2013, in Santa Clara, and the detailed schedule for the event has just been made available. In the previous years, the conference was divided into  Chip Designs day (1 day), and the other 2 days were reserved for Software & System Design, but this year it does not appear to be the case. Whether you’ll be able to attend the event or not, it’s worth having a look at what will be discussed there in order to have a better understanding of what will be the key ARM developments in the near future in terms of hardware and software. There will be around 90 sessions categorized into 15 tracks: Accelerating Hardware Development – This track explores the resources, tools, and techniques that designers can employ to quickly bring hardware to market. Topics include multicore design, ARM IP, […]

Design West Summit – 23-25 April 2013

Design West 2013, previously known as the Embedded Systems Confertence, will take place later this month, on 23-25 April to be exact, at San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, US. The event will be divided into 22 tracks dealing with software development, hardware design, operating systems, security and more: Android Certificate Program – Two-day hands-on embedded android workshop. Black Hat Summit – The Black Hat Embedded Security Summit will provide electronics professionals with essential information and tools, as well as a forum for the discussion and evaluation of the latest solutions for securing their embedded systems. Training courses will focus on topics such as Network Security, Incident Response, Web Application Security, and Exploit Development. Connectivity and Networking – The Connectivity and Networking track educates design engineers on wired and wireless communications, spanning need-to-know topics from essentials of USB device development to antenna and RF system design. Debugging […]

IEEE Updates 802.11 Standard to Support 600Mb/s Wi-Fi and Approves 802.1aq Standard for Large Ethernet Networks

IEEE has recently announced a standard update for WiFi (802.11-2012) which adds support for 3.7 GHz bands, 600Mb/s throughput and mesh networking among other things, and approved 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging standard, which will streamline the creation and management of large Local and Metropolitan Area networks by using the next-generation VLANs. IEEE Wi-Fi 802.11-2012 Standard IEEE 802.11-2012 is the 4th revision of the Wi-Fi standard. It has been expanded by supporting faster and more secure devices, while offering improved Quality of Service and cellular network hand-off. Key amendments to the standard: IEEE 802.11n now defines MAC and PHY modifications to enable throughput up to a maximum of 600Mb/s Direct-link setup “Fast roam” Radio resource measurement Operation in the 3650-3700MHz band Vehicular environments, mesh networking, security, broadcast/multicast and unicast data delivery Interworking with external networks and network management. IEEE 802.11 is available for purchase for $5 at the IEEE Standards Store. […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design