MontaVista releases next generation of its embedded Linux OS

According to MontaVista Software, its latest version of Linux, called MontaVista Linux 6, lets embedded developers take better advantage of target hardware platforms and open source software. It lets those developers more easily tailor their product to a specific market.

MontaVista Linux 6 provides a complete embedded Linux development environment that's comprised of Market Specific Distributions (MSDs), development tools, and the support and maintenance required by developers to fully leverage the Linux technology provided by the semiconductor vendors as well as the vast resources of the open-source community.

MSDs are new Linux distributions, built on a common framework, and optimized for the respective hardware platform and its target market. An MSD is designed to support the full breadth of functionality provided by the semiconductor vendor, be feature compatible with the semiconductor vendors' Linux technology, and provide the value-add features from MontaVista. MSDs can be customized and optimized for the target application, allowing developers to create a tailored software distribution that exploits the hardware specific features.

Also included in the new OS is the MontaVista Integration Platform, which allows developers to extend and customize their software stack, while maintaining control over the build process Developers can fetch and integrate code from other team members, outside vendors, or the broader open-source community. Because it's built on open-source technology, the Integration Platform supports the standard recipe file formats.

The MontaVista Zone Content Server, integrated into the OS, delivers source code and other content dynamically to the Integration Platform, freeing the developer from searching for new source code and updates. The developer can identify changes, updates, and dependencies in his code, with the option of incorporating these changes to his build environment.

The final piece of the OS is the MontaVista DevRocket 6, which is the latest release of the MontaVista Eclipse-based IDE for platform and application development. It supports the Integration Platform and industry-standard tools for debugging, development, and system profiling.

MontaVista Linux 6 is in beta today, and will be generally available in July. For more, go to www.mvista.com/mvl6.