CELinux

The Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) has developed and published its baseline Linux source code, making it available for download and review by the open-source community.

The source tree includes initial improvements to startup and shutdown time, real-time functionality, ROM/RAM size requirements and power management that address the needs of CE devices, including audio/visual products and mobile phones.

With 22 additional companies joining the CELF since its inception, the group has made preliminary enhancements to the Linux platform for consumer electronics devices. Five companies -- IBM, Hewlett-Packard Company, LG Electronics Inc., Motorola and Nokia Corporation -- have joined the Steering Committee that was originally formed by Hitachi, Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd, NEC Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation.

"This significant achievement marks the first stage of the efforts of the CELF," said Scott Smyers, chairman of the CELF Steering Committee. "Starting with a version of the Linux kernel, the Architecture Group of the CELF has worked very hard to realize the first version of the CELF source tree. Starting today, I very much look forward to working within the established process of the CELF to reach consensus on the needs and requirements of the CE industry, and I further look forward to working with the CELF member companies and with the open source community to deliver top of class solutions to those needs through an open-source based, open and fair process."

The CELF plans to continue discussing the extensions to Linux with the goal to publish its first formal specification before the first anniversary of the forum.

The source is now available at http://tree.celinuxforum.org. The set of supported platforms in this first release is small, but will grow over time as additional support is provided by forum members. The source is provided under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Non-members of the forum are invited to evaluate and use the source tree. Feedback and contributions are welcome. Information about a public mailing list for discussions about the source tree is available at the web site.

Information about the CE Linux Forum and member lists details are available at: http://www.celinuxforum.org.