Drive up efficiency and quality in the mobile Linux* application development cycle, while enhancing cross-platform compatibility. The Moblin Software Development Kit (SDK) makes it easier and cheaper to port existing applications to mobile Internet devices (MIDs) or to write new ones from scratch.

Opportunity is knocking for software developers, in the shape of the MID platform; by 2013, 86 million Linux-enabled MID products will ship annually.¹ The Moblin open-source project offers an SDK that assembles the full spectrum of tools needed by the warrior-poets building the software to power this mobile Linux future. The Intel® Software Partner Program is your key to getting the most out of it.

The SDK is a master's set of tools, libraries, and utilities, with added documentation and sample code that helps drive rapid innovation while keeping down the cost and effort associated with developing MID applications.

One of the challenges that developers have always faced in building software for devices is to create and maintain multiple development environments for their target systems. It takes a lot of complicated fussing around with OS components, and every hour you spend doing that is one less hour you can spend on building great software.

The SDK uses Moblin Image Creator to make it easy to create multiple platform-specific development environments in isolation from your root file system, using pre-defined sets of OS components. It also lets you test your application binaries directly in a simulated target environment, working either from a GUI or command-line interface. Learn more about the Moblin Image Creator at v1.moblin.org/projects/projects_image-creator.php.

Nobody likes a battery hog, and power efficiency is core quality goodness in MID software. While general performance optimizations to software can help to extend battery life, specific power optimizations are necessary if you want your software to shine.

PowerTop is an open-source utility included with the Moblin SDK that shows you how the system is using power during execution, combining various sources of information from the kernel into a single view. That lets you monitor power usage and take the necessary steps to maximize battery life:

• Identify components responsible for power inefficiency and suggestions for improving them
• Minimize unnecessary transitions out of the processor's low-power states
• Take best advantage of other power-related platform features.

Learn more about the PowerTop utility at www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop.

Building the core development environment for MID applications is a personal art form in its own right, but every developer can benefit from a selection of tools that helps them optimize performance while enhancing their productivity. Ideally, those tools should be compatible with your other favorites and give you maximum flexibility to pick and choose as the needs of the moment dictate.

Intel® C++ Software Development Tool Suite for Linux Supporting Mobile Internet Devices, which is included with the Moblin SDK, meets all those criteria. Supporting the entire software development cycle, every piece of the suite is compatible with the GNU toolchain and other popular development environments:

• Intel® C++ Compiler is compatible with GCC, with automatic optimization for Intel® Atom™ processors
• Intel® Debuggers use an Eclipse* GUI for efficient, powerful debugging
• Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives provides a highly optimized function library
• VTune™ Performance Analyzer identifies hotspots during execution without recompiling

Learn more about Intel Software Development products for MID at www.intel.com/software/products/mid.

Open source communities are one of the industry's best ways of applying the best existing solutions and tools to new challenges, fostering innovation. Projects like Moblin have a wealth of open assets to draw on as they address the MID platform.

One way that the Moblin SDK takes advantage of this strategy is to integrate with and include the GNU toolchain, GCC, binutils, the GNU debugger, and the GNU build system. Documentation provides insights about using these tools with the rest of the SDK, for maximum benefit. Learn more about GNU tools in the Moblin SDK at v1.moblin.org/toolkits/basicDevGuides/mobLinux/toolkits_DevGds_mobLinux_config.php.

¹ September 24, 2008. ABI Research: Moblin Will Ship Most Linux-enabled Mobile Internet Devices by 2013.

Copyright © 2009 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.