CAMBRIDGE, England, October 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- To address
the rise in consumer demand for access to the Internet and advanced
applications on larger display mobile devices, ARM (; ) and six
companies today announced a collaboration that will result in the
development of a Linux-based open source platform for next-generation
mobile applications. The collaboration, announced at the fourth annual
ARM(R) Developers' Conference being held this week in Santa Clara,
California, builds on the ARM architecture and its rich ecosystem of
Partners to deliver a standards-base platform based on Linux. This
group of companies are all working to accelerate the enablement of
truly always on, connected mobile computing (CMC) devices.
By releasing the new platform into the open source community, the
new platform will be naturally adopted by ARM's large ecosystem of
software and silicon vendors, including Marvell, MontaVista, Movial,
Mozilla, Samsung, and Texas Instruments.
This effort between ARM and its Partners focuses on the development
of an open source platform based on Linux, Gnome Mobile and Mozilla
Firefox that runs on ARM Partners' advanced systems on chip (SoCs). The
collaboration strengthens ARM's well-established OS and browser
ecosystem, while leveraging the ability of ARM Partners to quickly
bring products and technologies with compelling graphics, video,
multimedia and internet capabilities to consumers.
Time-to-market is critical, competition is fierce and consumers'
expectation for an always on Internet experience on mobile devices
continues to increase. This group addresses the technology challenges
and time-to-market requirements that are essential in the development
of differentiated Connected Mobile Computing (CMC) devices including
but not limited to battery life, software integration and Web browsing
capabilities.
"Today's consumers are very knowledgeable about technology, want to
be connected to the Internet and access multimedia content and
applications anywhere, at anytime, yet they do not want to be
restricted by short battery life and inadequate features that will
limit their experiences," said Mike Inglis, executive vice president,
Sales and Marketing, ARM. "By stepping up the collaboration among key
stakeholders in the mobile market, we will be able to jointly deliver
the devices and applications with the cutting-edge innovation consumers
have come to expect."
"The market for ultra mobile devices is expected to grow at over a
20 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) through the next decade
driven by new communications standards, content rich data provided over
the Internet, new usage models, and new business models," commented Jim
McGregor, research director of the Enabling Technologies, In-Stat. "A
critical component of success in this market will be building on
industry standards that promote innovation in silicon, systems, and
most importantly, software solutions. Through open standards and
growing industry support, Linux naturally promotes such innovation."
ARM will demonstrate multiple Partners' reference boards running
the Linux Mobile Computing Platform in the Mobile Computing Pavilion
(booth 701) at the ARM Developers' Conference. ARM and its Partners
plan to release a full platform in early 2008 and bring devices to the
market in early 2009. The platform is subject to open source licensing
terms and the collaboration is expected to deliver additional projects
over time.
About ARM
ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced
digital products, from mobile, home and enterprise solutions to
embedded and emerging applications. ARM's comprehensive product
offering includes 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines,
graphics processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals,
software and development tools, as well as analog functions and
high-speed connectivity products. Combined with the company's broad
Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a
fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More
information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.
ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. All other brands or
product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is
used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited;
and the regional subsidiaries ARM Inc.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM
Taiwan Limited; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM
Belgium N.V.; AXYS Design Automation Inc.; ARM Germany GmbH; ARM
Embedded Technologies Pvt. Ltd.; and ARM Norway, AS.
SUPPORTING PARTNER QUOTES
"Marvell is a longtime ARM Partner, committed to enabling the ARM
instruction set architecture for high-end, portable Linux-based
devices," said Sam Arditi, senior vice president and general manager,
Cellular and Handheld Business Group, Marvell. "Marvell's architecture
license of the ARMv5, v6 and v7 instruction sets has allowed us to
deliver hundreds of millions of custom microprocessors to our customers
that can be found in a vast variety of products including storage
devices, WLAN, smartphones, and other communications/networking
devices."
"Millions of ARM and MontaVista technology-based mobile devices are
in use around the world every day, showing that ARM is with us at the
forefront of advances in connected mobile devices," said Jim Ready, CTO
and founder of MontaVista Software, Inc. "We are excited to apply what
we have learned from deploying our commercial-quality, field-proven
MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0 operating system-which supports ARM
processors-to help the formation of the Linux Mobile Computing
Platform."
"We are pleased that ARM is building on our open technology to
deliver the complete Web experience on new types of devices," said Mike
Shaver, chief evangelist, Mozilla. "Making an open source,
standards-based platform available for mobile devices will spur
innovation and enhance access to the Internet for millions of people."
"Movial is delighted to support ARM's significant push to improve
the mobile Internet experience through the development of a
standards-based open source platform for next-generation mobile
applications," said Tomi Rauste, president, Movial Creative
Technologies Inc. "Device manufacturers now have a highly-maintainable
software platform with which they can easily create new products,
speeding time-to-market and the ability to deliver on consumer
expectations."
"Samsung intends to offer the industry's most advanced mobile
platform devices to enable a truly mobile internet experience with
seamless connectivity to life-enhancing services for consumers," said
Yiwan Wong, VP of Marketing, System LSI Division, Semiconductor
Business, Samsung Electronics. "An important step in the creation of
this mobile platform is to make common software frameworks available
that facilitate third-party software developers to deliver value-added
applications for future mobile computing devices. Samsung is,
therefore, excited about, and supportive of, the development of the
Linux Mobile Computing Platform.
"The emergence of a new class of web-centric mobile devices is
inevitable. With the OMAP3430 processor, we support solutions with
PC-like performance coupled with low-power multimedia engines and the
connectivity capabilities of a Smartphone," said Avner Goren, Texas
Instruments. "The Linux Mobile Computing Platform provides a software
framework that is easily leveraged by both device manufacturers and our
rich ecosystem of application developers. Our support of this
partnership will help to bring these new devices to the market more
quickly and accelerate the creation of exciting new applications and
services."