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Ubicom, a provider of networking and multimedia processors, has announced the release of a Linux Board Support Package (BSP) with a complete implementation of the Linux 2.6.28 SMP kernel, device drivers, GNU tool suite and documentation for development of networking and multimedia products.

 

With Ubicom Linux BSP, developers can deploy existing applications while taking advantage of Ubicom’s multithreaded system. The company has updated the classic Linux development cycle by providing advanced tools such as an advanced Ethernet based version of GDB enabling full kernel and driver debugging.

 

Other tools include Ethernet based user level debugging; a configuration tool enabling developers to quickly configure the Software I/O features of the processor; and an in depth Ethernet based profiler tool.

 

Company officials said that the advanced profiler tool leverages Ubicom’s multi-threaded architecture to run real time statistical profiling without disturbing system performance and collect rich profile data such as CPU and memory utilization per function.

 

The BSP comes equipped with reference applications for router gateways and networked media players using turnkey open source packages. Also, Ubicom offers reference hardware, design files and fabrication data for Router Gateway (News - Alert) and Media designs.

 

In addition, it also provides CPU development board and personality boards for other applications. Officials said that all the released hardware and software solutions support the company’s latest IP7000 family of processors, which features the UBICOM32 12-way multithreaded architecture.

 

The Ubicom IP7000 family of networking and multimedia can be clocked at frequencies up to 600MHz. In comparison to traditional single-threaded RISC processor, officials said that this can deliver two to three times the performance at the same frequency.

 

Moreover, designers can also use a wider range of interface options through Ubicom's innovative technology software I/O technology. The integrated SIMD video coprocessor and DSP instruction set makes audio and video applications deterministic and less processor-intensive.

 

Noting that the demand for flexible high-performance embedded processing continues to grow as networking and media devices evolve, RK Parthasarathy, vice president of marketing at Ubicom, said that the “Ubicom Linux BSP for the IP7000 family of processors addresses the needs of embedded developers to efficiently bring solutions to market.”