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Chip giant Renesas has created a whole new line of high-end microprocessors that sit at the tippy top of the company’s product range.

In a reversal of normal hardware protocol, Renesas is making a big deal about the software support for its new chips, with particular emphasis on the Linux port. It is a differentiating feature, just not one that most CPU companies talk about.

The new RZ/G2 processor family comes bundled with Linux that’s supported entirely by Renesas (as opposed to community support) and that comes with a 10-year guarantee of availability, support, and updates. Your hardware supplier is also your OS supplier – and your sole source of technical assistance, whether your problem is with NMIs or APIs.

The Linux in question comes from the new Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) foundation. CIP is a subgroup under the nonprofit Linux Foundation that aims to define, control, distribute, and support a version of Linux that users can rely upon to be stable and long-lived. As the name implies, their work is aimed specifically at civil-infrastructure users (power generation, police, fire, wastewater management, and the like) to provide them with “industrial-grade components that require super long-term maintenance.”

Read more at EE Journal.

The four new RZ/G2 MPUs are supported by the Renesas RZ/G Linux Platform for industrial applications, bringing increased performance, reliability, security, and long-term software support to mission-critical applications as well as standard applications with high quality requirements.

The RZ/G2 MPUs feature a combination of high-performance 64-bit MPUs, a comprehensive set of integrated interfaces, error checking and correction (ECC) protection on both internal and external memories, and a full Verified Linux Package (VLP) featuring a Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) Super Long-Term Support (SLTS) Linux kernel, bundled with a software development environment that binds safety, security, and reliability across the software and hardware.

Read more at Electronics Weekly.

Presented as the second generation of the RZ / G family (the RZ / G1 were built on the 32-bit Arm Cortex-A7 and / or Cortex-A15 cores), the four new RZ / G2 processors rely on 64-bit cores Cortex-A57 and / or Cortex-A53, a rich set of interfaces, ECC protection for internal and external memories, as well as a verified Linux package (VLP) integrating a Linux CIP kernel (Civil Infrastructure Platform) whose support will be insured on a very long term (SLTS, Super Long-Term Support).

Read more in L’Embarque. (French publication)

The Linux Foundation launches the Elisa (Enabling Linux in Safety Applications) project, which, as the name implies, aims to build unified Linux systems for use in safety-critical systems.

Read more in Golem (Foreign publication)

Today, modern civil infrastructure is everywhere – power plants, radar systems, traffic lights, dams and weather systems. These infrastructure projects have been around for decades, and these facilities will continue to provide longer service, so safety and longevity are critical.

And many of these systems are powered by Linux, which gives technology providers more control over these issues. However, if each provider is building their own solution, this can lead to fragmentation and rework. therefore,Civil infrastructure platformCivil Infrastructure PlatformThe most important goal of (CIP) is to create an open source infrastructure layer for industrial facilities such as embedded controllers or gateway devices.

Read more at Linux.cn.

It can be a challenge to find an IIoT gateway that easily connects geographically dispersed devices to the cloud, especially in outdoor or rugged environments. Moxa’s UC series industrial computers are highly integrated Arm-based Linux platforms that include Moxa Industrial Linux. To address the need for an extended lifecycle for products in applications such as renewable energy monitoring, intelligent transportation systems, production line monitoring, and oil and gas artificial lift monitoring, the UC series are ruggedised and come with 10-year Linux support. Recognized for their reliable performance in large-scale deployments worldwide, these IIoT gateways are a trusted choice for all IIoT applications.

Read more at Instrumentation & Control.

The Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) project aims to provide a base layer for industrial open source software components, tools, and methods to enable the long-term management of critical systems. As a Silver member of the platform, Moxa is strengthening its promise to build smarter factories and cities on an interoperable, secure, reliable and sustainable open source platform. Run by the Linux Foundation, CIP aims to accelerate the implementation of Linux-based infrastructure building systems based on existing open source fundamentals and expertise.

Read more at wirautomatisierer.de.

With the development of computer technology, especially the rise of Internet technology and related enterprises, open source software has become the mainstream in various aspects such as operating system, compiler tool chain, database, WEB server, and mobile operating system. It is because when companies such as Google use open source software to form a unique business model, more and more developers and enterprises are beginning to pay attention to the development of open source software.

Read more at PC Pop.

Even as The Linux Foundation’s projects continue to grow and mature, enterprises and government agencies and organizations struggle with the question of the sustainability when adopting open source technologies.

While Red Hat and similar companies have long made it possible for even the largest initiatives to be built and managed, through certification programs, professional services, and ongoing support businesses, city planners and others responsible for multi-million and even multi-billion-dollar projects are cautious if not conservative when it comes to too much open source (vs. locked down vendor provided solutions).

The Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) Project “aims to create an interoperable open source software platform that is secure, reliable and sustainable for more than 10 years” according to a news release issued out of Tokyo on June 20th.

Read more at Info Tech.

When Linus Torvalds learned the need to write the Minix clone system Linux, he probably couldn’t think of a revolution in the computer world. Today, Linux has touched almost every corner of the world. Especially in some special fields, such as earthquake simulation, weather simulation, large-scale animation design of Hollywood, 3D rendering, etc., basically Linux systems have dominated the world.

Read more at CCID Net. (Chinese publication)