MontaVista Software, a company that offers open source software solutions for the embedded Linux systems market, reportedly announced that the company developed a software stack for Latitude ON – Dell’s (News - Alert) instant, always on connection to e-mail, Web, contacts and calendar.
Based on the MontaVista (News - Alert) Montabello MID platform, the software stack provides the advanced power management, fast startup, and connectivity management required by Latitude ON users. Three important features of the software include Instant ON, Always ON, and Always CONNECTED.
The Instant ON is a fast operating system boot with instant resume in less than one second. Always ON provides days-long battery life using dynamic power management. Always CONNECTED is a connection management feature that offers seamless roaming on Wireless Fidelity and 3G networks with Auto virtual private network and fully integrated Bluetooth.
The software offers support for ARM (News - Alert) processor in the Latitude ON. It also supports Dell Latitude Z and E4200/4300 laptops. It features a mobile application suite with a Web browser, document reader, email client, contact manager, calendar and more. E-mail client support for POP, IMAP and Exchange is included. Further, the software includes document reader capability for .doc, .xls, .ppt and .pdf formats, and Citrix Receiver support for remote corporate connectivity.
According to MontaVista officials, Latitude ON represents the convergence of laptop productivity with instant “on” convenience and multi-day battery life in idle mode.
It lets users stay connected and utilizes the laptop’s keyboard and display for enhanced usability.
“Dell Latitude ON takes an innovative approach to delivering instant access to email, Web and calendar while providing multi-day battery life,” said Steve Belt, vice president, Business Client Engineering, Dell, in a statement. “MontaVista’s long history of innovation in embedded Linux and mobile devices made them the logical choice to work with as we developed the Latitude ON software stack.”
“By delivering a complete ARM-based software platform for Dell, we freed them from having to develop a complex software infrastructure,” Rusty Harris, CEO of MontaVista Software, said. “This gave them a significant head-start on their project and enabled them to deliver a unique and sought after product feature.”
Last month, MontaVista announced its carrier grade edition Linux with over 30 different Linux support packages, TMCnet reported. In addition, MontaVista become the first commercial Linux vendor to offer virtual routing and forwarding capabilities for secure wireless networks.
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Amy Tierney