ZDNet: Startup unveils tiny "Linux-like" OS for Internet appliances

Dec 01, 2000, 13:00 (7 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Rick Lehrbaum)

"DSPsoft Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA) has unveiled UnixCE, a small footprint "Linux-like" operating system for resource constrained Internet appliances and mobile devices. The company's founder and CEO, Vasant Kanchan, claims the new OS is "the smallest Unix-like kernel that contains a built-in X-Windows compatible API." Kanchan says UnixCE can run out of just 340KB of RAM on an i386 CPU. At that size, it includes a Fat32 file system, TCP/IP stack, Unix APIs (signals, vm, mmap, etc.), core Xlib, plus support for zipped executables and libraries. A demo version of UnixCE (v1.1) that runs on a desktop PC is available for download (binaries only)."

"Kanchan founded DSPsoft in early 1998, with an intention to address the needs of the emerging "appliance market" based on his previous experience with embedded systems and DSP technologies. Perceiving Linux to be deficient for the tight RAM and Flash memory and processor budgets of mobile devices, and relative to the real-time performance needs of mobile device communications and streaming audio, Kanchan decided to develop a small real-time Unix/Linux compatible kernel and equip it with the basic tools needed for "cheap Internet appliance" applications like cell phones and PDAs."

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