New MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0 is an optimized Linux operating system and development platform for wireless handsets and other mobile devices such as GPS devices, portable medical devices, and wireless POS terminals. Mobilinux 5.0 is the new version of the operating system used in 90 percent of Linux-based smartphones. More than 35 million phones and other mobile devices run on Mobilinux, far more than any other commercial Linux.
This fifth-generation mobile operating system delivers ubiquitous connectivity, fast performance, and NSA-level security to consumers, plus lower costs and faster time-to market for manufacturers.
As a commercial-grade Linux development platform it provides the time to market benefits normally only found in proprietary development platforms with the customizability and control of an open-source Linux environment. Unlike freely-available source code, Mobilinux is productized, has been tested by MontaVista’s testing facilities, and is backed by MontaVista’s PhD-level support.
Mobilinux addresses mobile device requirements for power management, real-time performance, fast start-up, and small footprint.
MontaVista Mobilinux 5.0 is the first mobile operating system to include MontaVista MicroSELinux, a miniaturized version of Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) to protect the integrity of system software, configuration information, and system logs. MicroSELinux enables a single Mobilinux device to be used by users with different security roles to access multiple kinds of information with different security levels. No one else has put SELinux on a phone. Only Mobilinux 5.0 can provide this degree of protection.
Longer battery life
Fully programmable Mobilinux power management includes APIs that extend battery life to support power-hungry multimedia. In tests on a phone running a Texas Instruments OMAP 2430 processor, MontaVista’s unique power management played MP3 music five times as long as the same phone without MontaVista power management.
Built-in connectivity
Higher-end handsets need capabilities such as e-mail, Internet, and VoIP. As they become more PC-like, handsets are becoming the next generation client. MontaVista Linux can connect to more types of software and devices than any other Linux. Mobilinux 5.0 saves months of development time by providing out-of-the-box support for SDIO (Secure Digital Input Output), Wi-Lan/Wi-Fi over USB, Bluetooth over USB (supporting wireless headsets, headphones, and other items), USB On-The-Go, ALSA sound drivers, GStreamer, plus many new devices and the protocol stacks to support them.
Speedy startup
Phones using Moblinux 5.0 typically boot in less than 5 seconds and place a phone call in less than 10 seconds, three times faster than Symbian or Microsoft-based devices and three-and-a-half times faster than the iPhone. MontaVista supports XIP (Execute-In-Place) and prelinking, so applications start quickly, enabling fast shut-down and resume from sleep in less than half a second.
Small footprint
Mobilinux 5.0 can be implemented in under 2 megabytes and for a typical mobile phone with basic functionality, less than 14 megabytes. In addition, Mobilinux implements uClibc, LOT (Library Optimization Tool), and other technologies to reduce application footprint size.
Better development environment
The device development tool chain for Mobilinux 5.0 is the first in the world to provide KGDB over USB. This solves development problems caused because debuggers require serial ports, but phone miniaturization eliminated serial ports, forcing the creation of external test environments for all debugging. Mobilinux 5.0 allows a debugger to connect directly to a device’s USB port, allowing debugging and tracing of both the kernel and applications to be done on the target device itself. In addition, Mobilinux 5.0 includes new platform development tools that enhance productivity for kernel-level work, and new tools for mobile application developers.
Multi-core processor support
Mobilinux 5.0 supports both single-core and multi-core processors, and supports devices built with multiple processing chips (such as phones using one baseband processor and one application processor) as well as devices that combine multiple processors on one integrated CPU chip.
BOM cost reduction
Given typical handset volumes, opportunities to reduce the bill of materials (BOM) cost can have a significant financial benefit. Most high-level operating systems have expensive hardware requirements. The advanced real-time technology in Mobilinux enables a single chipset to handle both baseband and application processing. Further, because MontaVista works with a wide range of processors, memories and boards, device manufacturers can choose the most cost-effective BOM components.
