IBM Corp. will be boosting its support of the embedded Linux platform with Linux middleware for Bluetooth-enabled devices.
Codenamed BlueDrekar, the Linux Bluetooth drivers will give programmers designing applications for Linux access to Bluetooth technology.
"This allows a programmer to write their application in Linux and (have it) be transportable over Bluetooth, said Daniel Jue, manager of IBM's AlphaWorks site.
Bluetooth, developed by a consortium of companies including Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba, is a short-range wireless frequency for sending data between devices.
ISVs (independent software vendors) writing to a specific platform such as embedded Linux need to include all the features in that platform that make it relevant. As users become increasingly mobile, Bluetooth appears to be an important part of that relevancy. Armonk, New York-based IBM estimates that by 2002 there will be between 60 million and 100 million Bluetooth-enabled devices.
"This is the way the industry is heading. Enabling wireless devices (with Bluetooth) for the enterprise is going to be the natural evolution of distributed computing," said Sally Cusack, research manager of middleware and businessware at International Data Corp. (IDC), in Framingham, Massachusetts.
BlueDrekar will be posted on IBM's AlphaWorks at www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/bluedrekar until the end of October.
IBM plans to submit BlueDrekar to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) shortly.
The BlueDrekar codename is derived from the dragon that sat on the bow of a Viking ship, and Bluetooth is a reference to a Danish king of yore.