Timesys Offers Linux Support for Xilinx High Performance Virtex Devices

PITTSBURGH – Timesys is now offering Linux support for high-performance Virtex FPGAs from Xilinx with LinuxLink, a service for enabling developers to assemble their own customized embedded Linux platforms.

Starting today, Timesys is offering LinuxLink subscriptions for the Xilinx Virtex-4 FX platform, which provides up to two PowerPC 405, 32-bit RISC processor cores in a single device. Additional support for other Xilinx FPGAs will be available in the coming months. With this LinuxLink, customers get access to a variety of Linux components optimized for the Xilinx ML405 FX Evaluation Platform, including the latest 2.6.23 Linux kernel, hundreds of packages pre-compiled for use with Virtex-4 FX devices, and a reference distribution that provides an integrated and tested starting point for platform customization. The LinuxLink subscription also includes toolchains and a robust collection of development tools, as well as extensive documentation and support.

With all of these components from LinuxLink, customers can build a customized software platform, with the specific applications, libraries, and utilities that makes sense for their project. LinuxLink also utilizes a web delivery model to ensure that customers always have access to the latest in Linux technology. “Roll your own” developers can use LinuxLink to tap into the innovation of the open source community, while still having a trusted source for content and support.

“Working with FPGA hardware like the Xilinx Virtex-4, developers have a great deal of flexibility in their design such that a one-size-fits-all software platform just won’t work for the vast majority of developers,” said Atul Bansal, CEO of Timesys. “LinuxLink by Timesys is a unique service that lets each customer completely customize their platform to fit the needs of their projects.”

Tom Feist, Embedded and Signal Processing Solutions, Marketing Director at Xilinx said, “Our customers are focused on using the flexibility of our FPGAs to get their product to market faster than other alternatives. LinuxLink by Timesys fits well with Xilinx products, as it allows development teams to create a customized Linux platform that will jumpstart their software development projects and get their solutions to market faster.”

LinuxLink for Virtex-4 FX FPGAs will be demonstrated in the Timesys booth at the Real-Time & Embedded Computing Conference in Santa Clara on January 22nd, 2008. Attendees can also join a Timesys-sponsored session that discusses the process of building a custom Linux platform, using the Virtex-4 as an example.

Timesys is also hosting a free webinar for getting started with Linux on Xilinx FPGA Hardware. This webinar will cover the key steps in planning for and building a Linux platform for a Xilinx board.