* Linux a-plenty at CES 2005
Usually at this time of year, we’re looking ahead to the winter LinuxWorld show. But with the proliferation of Linux in consumer electronics and home entertainment technology, the Consumer Electronics Show 2005 will become the first big event of the year for the open source platform.
One vendor making a splash at the show – running this week in Las Vegas – is a small company called Interact-TV. But there is nothing small about its product: a 1.2T byte home digital media server, based on Linux.
The TeraTelly GS1250, a $2,000 Linux-based home entertainment servers, is intended to act as a central archive for all digital music, movies, photos, home videos and whatever else you’d like to throw into the enormous storage box. The device plugs into home stereo equipment and TV inputs, and is controlled via a trackball-based remote. A TV can be used as a monitor for the Web-based interface, which can also provide Internet access using the TV as a display.
Pixel Magic Systems is another company using Linux as a base for its consumer electronic gear. The vendor will be displaying its Plasma Enhancer PE1000 appliance at the show, a gadget for the true videophile. The device, which runs an embedded Linux platform, sits between a display and image source device (such as a PC or digital set-top box) and improves the quality of images by eliminating fuzziness or jagged images produced on some large displays, according to the company.
In addition to Linux-based gadgets, CES 2005 will also be a source for engineers and product developers interested in the latest embedded Linux systems for the consumer electronics device market. Vendors with such products and services at the show will include:
* Empower Technologies (http://www.empowertechnologies.com), a maker of embedded Linux operating system for consumer applications.http://www.therndgroup.com), a software engineering and consulting company that develops applications for embedded Linux, and other platforms for consumer applications.https://www.softier.com/), a maker of digital signal processors with a focus on building Linux-based hardware/software DSP products.
* RND Group (
* Softier (
