Atmel has introduced a Linux mainline release, v2.6.27, for its 400MHz ARM926EJ-S-based AT91SAM9G20 embedded microprocessor, as well as for other members of the AT91SAM9 family.
According to Alfredo Vadillo, Atmel's managing director for ARM microcontrollers, there is a strong market demand for Linux on AT91SAM9 product family.
A Linux distribution is available from Atmel's AT91SAM Linux portal. It includes the complete Linux v2.6.27 kernel, the Linux patch for the AT91SAM9G20-EK, device drivers, pre-built demonstrations and the Angstrom/OpenEmbedded building environment.
The AT91SAM Linux portal is a gateway to a wide and growing community that provides Linux self-support for Atmel's entire ARM9-based range of embedded 32-bit microprocessors.
Complementary products and support are available through TimeSys®, including an embedded Linux ReadyKit for the entire AT91SAM9 series including the AT91SAM9G20.
The ReadyKit comprises a pre-built Linux kernel, device drivers, a GNU-based cross toolchain, a glibc-based root filesystem complete with selected development libraries, 14 days of technical support and access to a wide range of support documentation.
The 400MHz AT91SAM9G20 has direct memory access and a distributed memory architecture which supports multiple simultaneous data transfers between memories, peripherals and external interfaces without consuming CPU clock cycles. The external bus interface runs at 133MHz for data transfers to off-chip memories.