Linaro announces Marvell as a founding member of the Linaro Community Boards Group

Marvell invests in enabling the open source development community with the development of a new cost-effective quad-core ARM 64-bit development board

HONG KONG, China -- FEBRUARY 9, 2015 -- Linaro Ltd, the not-for-profit engineering organization developing open source software for the ARM^® architecture, today at Linaro Connect Hong Kong 2015 announced that leading silicon solution provider Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (MRVL) has joined Linaro as a founding member of the new Linaro Community Boards Group (LCG).

Marvell, a worldwide leader in providing complete silicon solutions from mobile communications to storage, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, digital entertainment and in-home content delivery and Kinoma^® software has joined the LCG to deliver a highly integrated quad-core 64-bit ARMADA^® Mobile PXA1928 platform in an easily accessible format to software developers, OEMs and hobbyists around the world.

The ARMADA Mobile PXA1928 was announced in February 2014 and has been named as one of the processors being used in the Google Project Ara application processor module reference designs. The multi-mode LTE System-on-Chip (SoC) is already running Linux and Android in various devices such as tablets and smartphones, and Marvell plans to release a 96Boards compatible platform based on this processor in the next few weeks. This will bring the functionality of these shipping devices onto the desks of developers where they can easily develop and optimize the operating systems and applications for both existing and new devices.

“Linaro has been working closely with Marvell on Project Ara and we are excited that the ARMADA Mobile PXA1928 will be available to developers on an easily accessible board,” said George Grey, CEO of Linaro. “I’m very pleased to welcome Marvell as a founding member of the Linaro Community Boards group and I look forward to the launch of their 96Boards compatible product in the next few weeks.”

The LCG has been formed to support the new 96Boards initiative. 96Boards is the first open hardware specification that provides a platform for the delivery of compatible low-cost, small footprint 32-bit and 64-bit Cortex-A boards. Standardized expansion buses for peripheral I/O, display and cameras allow the hardware ecosystem to develop a range of compatible add-on products that will work on 96Boards products over the lifetime of the platform. The LCG Steering Committee will manage the evolution of the 96Boards open specifications and the development of the 96Boards community. The 96Boards website provides software downloads and updates, information on compatible products, and forums for software developers, makers and OEMs to get community software support and downloads for all 96Boards products.

“As a founding member of the Linaro Community Boards Group (LCG), Marvell is pleased to participate in the launch of the 96Boards initiative,” said Philip Poulidis, Vice President and General Manager, Internet of Things Business Unit at Marvell. Linaro is a key place for collaborative software and hardware engineering on the ARM architecture and we are proud of our long-standing work with the ARM ecosystem, enabling the “Smart Life, Smart Lifestyle,” for consumers around the globe. We believe in providing cost-effective, best-in-class platforms for new developer communities to be able to create a wider array of applications with products such as the 64-bit quad core PXA1928.”

About Linaro

Linaro is the place where engineers from the world’s leading technology companies define the future of Linux on ARM. The company is a not-for-profit engineering organization with over 150 engineers working on consolidating and optimizing open source software for the ARM architecture, including developer tools, the Linux kernel, ARM power management, and other software infrastructure. Linaro is distribution neutral: it wants to provide the best software foundations to everyone by working upstream, and to reduce non-differentiating and costly low level fragmentation. The effectiveness of the Linaro approach has been demonstrated by Linaro’s growing membership, and by Linaro consistently being listed as one of the top five company contributors to Linux kernels since 3.10.

To ensure commercial quality software, Linaro’s work includes comprehensive test and validation on member hardware platforms. The full scope of Linaro’s engineering work is open to all online. To find out more, please visit http://www.linaro.org.

About Marvell

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a global leader in providing complete silicon solutions and Kinoma® software enabling the “Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle.” From mobile communications to storage, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, digital entertainment and in-home content delivery, Marvell’s diverse product portfolio aligns complete platform designs with industry-leading performance, security, reliability and efficiency. At the core of the world’s most powerful consumer, network and enterprise systems, Marvell empowers partners and their customers to always stand at the forefront of innovation, performance and mass appeal. By providing people around the world with mobility and ease of access to services adding value to their social, private and work lives, Marvell is committed to enhancing the human experience.

As used in this release, the term “Marvell” refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.Marvell.com.