EDN's 18th Annual Innovation Awards Finalist: Mobilinux 5.0 (MontaVista)

Mobilinux 5.0 is an optimized Linux operating system and development platform for wireless handsets and other mobile devices, such as GPS devices, portable medical devices, and wireless POS terminals. Mobilinux 5.0 is the latest version of the operating system and is in use in 90% of Linux-based smartphones. More than 35 million phones and other mobile devices run on Mobilinux, far more than any other commercial Linux. In addition to providing a platform for the features common in today’s smartphones—such as touchscreen control, e-mail processing, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, video cameras, multimedia, and Adobe Flash display—Mobilinux 5.0 enables developers to easily provide custom functions. Mobilinux supports Linux standards, so designers can add functions by including off-the-shelf Linux utilities without worrying about function loss due to incompatibility. Built-in support for emerging methods of connectivity, and new I/O types including a Linux networking stack with IPv6 support, increase device functions by enabling devices to communicate and interact with the latest device software. Mobilinux 5.0 is the first mobile operating system to include NSA-level mobile security, meaning that multiple users with different security roles can access multiple kinds of information with different security levels. Mobilinux presents a complete package, and therein lays the innovation: security, connectivity, extended battery life, small footprint, and overall speed.