Yocto Project Introduces New Features

The Linux Foundation-hosted Yocto Project fosters growing community of embedded Linux developers, technologies and products

PRAGUE {LinuxCon Europe}, October 26, 2011 – The Yocto Project, a hosted project at The Linux Foundation, today announced the availability of Yocto Project Release 1.1, as well as a variety of one-year milestones for the project.

The Linux Foundation today also announced it will become the host for the Embedded GNU C Library (EGLIBC), further broadening and strengthening a common set of tools for embedded Linux development.

The EGLIBC library is an add-on to the GNU C library (glibc) and is optimized for use in embedded development. Until now, Mentor Graphics, the founder and chief maintainer of the project through its acquisition of CodeSourcery, hosted the EGLIBC library. Other participants have included Freescale, MIPS Technologies, MontaVista Software and Wind River, among others.

The Yocto Project was announced one year ago (October 2010) to provide developers with greater consistency in the software and tools they’re using across multiple architectures for embedded Linux development. The collaborative project brings together the elements needed to make the normally difficult embedded Linux development process much easier. The following milestones and activities are contributing to a vibrant community for embedded development:

• Alignment of OpenEmbedded technology and the inclusion of OpenEmbedded representation in the Yocto Project governance structure. The projects share a common core that consists of software build recipes and core Linux components that prevent fragmentation and reinforce the OpenEmbedded methodology as an open standard for embedded Linux build systems.

• Contribution of tools and technologies such as Cross-prelink, EGLIBC, Pseudo, Shoeleather Lab (for automated testing) and Swabber have been contributed from Intel, Mentor Graphics, MontaVista Software and Wind River.

• Commercial adoption with examples such as FIC’s Pegasus platform powered by Tridium’s Niagara Framework. The Pegasus platform is an industrial tablet design that was quickly ported to Linux based on existing Yocto Project Board Support Packages. Tridium is a world leader in software frameworks, automation infrastructure technology and device-to-enterprise integration solution, and FIC is a global designer and manufacturer of mobile and commercial hardware solutions.

• Board Support Packages that include Intel’s Atom-PC, Freescale’s MPC8315e-RDB, TI’s BeagleBoard and Ubiquiti’s RouterStation Pro, among others.

The new Yocto Project Release 1.1 is based on Linux kernel 3.0 and consists of the following new features and resources that enable developers and third parties to more quickly and easily build embedded Linux systems:

• Multi-lib: Reduces storage and memory footprint by allowing the system developer to mix and match binaries.

• Hob: An improved graphical user experience enables developers to select target architecture, image and layer combinations, and to select or remove individual packages before building, making the use of the Yocto tools even easier.

• Layer Tooling: Eases the integration and development of layers by “flattening” them together into a collection of meta-data, making it much easier for third parties to develop and release layers.

• Initial support for x32, allowing execution of 32-bit code with all the benefits of 64-bit mode bringing performance and footprint improvements on x86 processors.

• Small footprint/fast boot layers that make it easier to develop tiny embedded systems (less than 8MB of memory) with Yocto.

• New packages and components include 3G cellular data support and advanced btrfs filesystem, which improve applicability of the Yocto Project tools to new segments.

• New Yocto Project Developer Guide: This document provides important information on how to get started in open source, Board Support Package and kernel development.

“Since its introduction one year ago this week, the Yocto Project has exploded into a strong open source community of developers, users and vendors working together to advance Linux in the mobile and embedded markets,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “The Yocto Project has quickly become a trusted upstream resource for embedded vendors who need to quickly and easily develop products for a variety of architectures, and get to market fast.”

Companies and organizations participating in the project include Dell, Intel, Mentor Graphics, MontaVista, OpenEmbedded eV, Texas Instruments, Timesys, and Wind River, among others. The Yocto Project participants are meeting this week at LinuxCon Europe and the Embedded Linux Conference in Prague, Czech Republic. For more information on these events, please visit the Linux Foundation conferences site. For more information about the Yocto Project, please visit: http://www.yoctoproject.org.

Supporting Quotes

Intel

“The Yocto Project provides an opportunity to help Intel customers differentiate and create unique solutions in the embedded market segment,” said Ton Steenman, vice president and general manager, Intelligent Systems Group, Intel. “Intel remains committed to choice in operating systems and our Intelligent Systems roadmap for embedded views the Yocto Project as a way to provide our customers with a flexible Linux enabling vehicle.”

Mentor Graphics

“The EGLIBC library is a fundamental technology to an embedded Linux system. By integrating it with the Yocto Project and hosting it at The Linux Foundation, we can accelerate the development of EGLIBC,” said Mark Mitchell, Director of Tools, Mentor Graphics Embedded Software Division. “The new Shoeleather Lab hosted by Mentor Graphics will aid the Yocto Project by providing a neutral site for connecting developers to leading-edge hardware platforms, facilitating critical porting and optimization activities around Yocto and EGLIBC.”

MontaVista Software

“The Yocto Project is providing key resources specific to the embedded Linux developer community,” said Dan Cauchy, VP of Marketing and Business Development, MontaVista Software. “We’re glad to be collaborating with our industry peers in improving embedded Linux development.”

Texas Instruments

“The alignment of the Yocto Project and OpenEmbedded continues to accelerate our development,” said Jason Kridner, ARM microprocessors community development manager at TI. “We’re active in the Yocto Project because it moves as fast as we do to meet the market demands for embedded Linux development. We’re proud to be a part of this community.”

Wind River

“The adoption of the Yocto Project validates the market demand for a common set of embedded Linux development tools,” said Paul Anderson, vice president of Linux products at Wind River. “As a founding member and active maintainer, Wind River is firmly committed to the success of the Yocto Project and will continue its contributions of code, resources, infrastructure, and tools, as well as draw from the Yocto Project as an upstream source for our commercial Linux releases.”

About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source development community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Linux conferences, including LinuxCon, and generating original Linux research and content that advances the understanding of the Linux platform. Its web properties, including Linux.com, reach approximately two million people per month. The organization also provides extensive Linux training opportunities that feature the Linux kernel community’s leading experts as instructors. Follow The Linux Foundation on Twitter.

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