ARM today flexed its mobile muscle by revealing a fairly broad coalition focused on developing a version of Linux well-suited for future smart phones.

The chip designer has teamed with Marvell, MontaVista, Movial, Mozilla, Samsung and TI in an effort to help Linux make headway on mobile systems. The companies intend to craft an open source operating system, development package and a browser. Such software could run on just about anything from a phone to ultra-mobile PCs or what these companies call “connected mobile computing” devices.

The “platform” should be baked by early 2008 and in widely shipping devices by 2009.

"What we are trying to do is just make it easier for application programmers and people writing plug-ins to have some firm ground that they can rely on," ARM CEO Warren East told us.

Rather than crafting different software for ARM-based systems rolled out by various devices makers, developers should find some level of commonality with the new platform and be able to make minimal code changes.

Linux continues to gain traction at pace in the embedded and mobile markets.

More information on ARM's work in this area is available here. ®

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