X

Red Hat signs Sanyo, Motorola deals

Red Hat has signed deals to bring its GNUPro software-development tools to Sanyo's Xstormy16 CPU and to support the AltiVec instructions in Motorola PowerPC chips, the companies said this week. The deals, announced at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, thus far involve only Red Hat's GNUPro development tools for writing and debugging software. Red Hat, though, always seeks expanded contracts that involve Linux and another open-source operating system called eCos, a Red Hat representative said. Sanyo's Xstormy16 is used in devices without much computing power, including audio devices and home appliances. AltiVec is technology built into many PowerPC chips that speeds up operations such as audio processing. The technology is useless, however, unless software can take advantage of it, and supporting AltiVec in GNUPro will allow Linux to get past that roadblock.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
See full bio
Stephen Shankland
Red Hat has signed deals to bring its GNUPro software-development tools to Sanyo's Xstormy16 CPU and to support the AltiVec instructions in Motorola PowerPC chips, the companies said this week. The deals, announced at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, thus far involve only Red Hat's GNUPro development tools for writing and debugging software. Red Hat, though, always seeks expanded contracts that involve Linux and another open-source operating system called eCos, a Red Hat representative said.

Sanyo's Xstormy16 is used in devices without much computing power, including audio devices and home appliances. AltiVec is technology built into many PowerPC chips that speeds up operations such as audio processing. The technology is useless, however, unless software can take advantage of it, and supporting AltiVec in GNUPro will allow Linux to get past that roadblock.