Date: 05/11/2012

Linaro's list of members grows big

Technology group Linaro who are working on open source software for ARM architecture gets lot more new members. The new members include AMD, AppliedMicro, Calxeda, Canonical, Cavium, Facebook, HP, Marvell and Red Hat. The existing Linaro members are ARM, HiSilicon, Samsung and ST-Ericsson to form new group focused on accelerating Linux development for ARM servers.

With significant market interest in energy-efficient ARM-based servers, industry leaders have joined together through Linaro, creating LEG, to collaborate and accelerate the development of foundational software for ARM Server Linux. LEG benefits have broad industry implications, including time to market acceleration, lower development costs, and access to innovative and differentiated systems, fundamental to the ARM ecosystem.

ARM CEO Warren East said “The significance of key industry players coming together like this to develop new aspects of the ecosystem is showing the transformational position the industry is now in. As power and energy become increasing costs to business, there continues to be a need to drive down costs and this means a total reinvention of the server space. There will be a range of server solutions based on ARM technology as the entire business community looks to reduce cost of ownership and achieve energy efficiency. Ultimately, it is the partnership approach which is vital to encourage innovation in this space and we are delighted to see LEG shares this vision. By changing the way we process data, the opportunity for a smarter, more connected future can be truly realized.” Concurrently, at the Linaro Connect event in Copenhagen, the LEG engineering team is engaged in face-to face meetings as part of Linaro’s regular engineering conference at which over 300 engineers from more than 80 companies have been defining the future of Linux on ARM.

“Linaro is building a high-quality software engineering team that is working with our members on the development of key enabling software for the new generation of low-power, high-performance, hyperscale servers,” said George Grey, CEO of Linaro, “We are especially pleased with the broad industry support and to be working with commercial Linux providers and OEMs in addition to SoC vendors to ensure that we meet the requirements of all members of the ecosystem.”

“Linux is driving innovation in every area of computing from mobile and embedded to the cloud. Linaro’s enterprise efforts will bring together software engineers to help accelerate Linux development for ARM servers, and we’re confident that this new server-focused group will advance Linux in these areas and offer additional choices to Linux users around the world.” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation.

Linaro expects initial software delivery before the end of 2012 with ongoing releases thereafter.
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N