| Linux SDIO stack vendor adds WiFi, PDA support |
Sep. 19, 2005
EmbWise of Chennai, India says its proprietary Linux SDIO stack now supports WiFi cards, in addition to Bluetooth Type A cards. Additionally, the stack has been ported to Sharp's Zaurus SL-C3000 PDA, the company says, to provide an inexpensive platform for SDIO card tests and demonstrations.
EmbWise launched its SDIOWorx product in March, describing the product as a toolkit that could give host chip and device vendors, as well as peripheral designers, a head start implementing SD/SDIO support under Linux 2.4 or 2.6. Planned areas of support include DVB, GPS, Zigbee, WLAN, and RFID peripherals.
SDIOWorx competes with Linux SDIO stacks from BSquare, Codetelligence, and possibly others.
EmbWise says its SDIOWorx stack helps hardware vendors preserve intellectual property, by enabling them to distribute drivers in binary form. CTO V. Alagusankar explains, "We have to respect the GPL, as well as our agreement with the SD Card Association. So, we have a unique design [that] mitigates issues related to GPL [and allows] customers to redistribute the stack in binary."
EmbWise says it has integrated an SDIO-WLAN reference driver from a leading North American WLAN vendor, which it will bundle with SDIOWorx in binary form. SDIOWorx also includes a reference Bluetooth (Type A) driver reference design with source code, and also supports generic SD-UART devices, the company says.
On the host side, SDIOWorx supports "standards-based controllers" from Arasan Chip Systems and Tokyo Electron Devices, as well as the MMC/SDCard controller built into Intel's PXA270 (Bulverde) SoC (system-on-chip) running MontaVista Linux, the company says. The stack additionally offers limited support for the ulTRON embedded operating system, with support for additional host chips and OSes planned.
 Additionally, EmbWise says it has ported its SDIOWorx stack to Sharp's Zaurus SL-C3000 (pictured at right), a Linux-based PDA powered by the PXA270 processor and equipped with a 4GB harddrive.
The SDIO standard is administered by the SD Card Association, which charges $1,000 per copy. According to its executive director, Paul Reinhardt, administration of the association was recently taken over by Global Inventures, a consulting firm that manages about 15 different industry associations, and the organization is working to clarify legal proceedures relating to SDIO. "We're attempting to rectify the dearth of information available on licensing in general. [Those implementing SDIO] currently have to get up to four licenses from three entities," Reinhardt said, adding that he would provide an update soon on the legal status of community-developed SDIO drivers not based on licensed copies of the standard.
EmbWise Managing Director G. Srinivasan said, "We are seeing increased interest for Linux-based SDIO solutions. The addition of Wi-Fi support [will help] device vendors to add SDIO-WiFi functionality to their SDIO based designs, [and help] host CPU vendors test and validate their host controller designs. Support [for] the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000 PDA [provides a] cheaper platform for SDIO peripheral client card vendors to test and validate their driver [on], as well as demonstrate their technology to their potential customers."
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