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μClinux is a variation of the
Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a Free and open-source software, free and open source Unix-like kernel (operating system), kernel that is used in many computer systems worldwide. The kernel was created by Linus Torvalds in 1991 and was soon adopted as the k ...
, previously maintained as a fork, that targets
microcontroller A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...
s without a
memory management unit A memory management unit (MMU), sometimes called paged memory management unit (PMMU), is a computer hardware unit that examines all references to computer memory, memory, and translates the memory addresses being referenced, known as virtual mem ...
(MMU). It was integrated into the mainline kernel as of 2.5.46; the project continues to develop patches and tools for microcontrollers. The homepage lists Linux kernel releases for 2.0, 2.4 and 2.6 (all of which are end-of-life in mainline). The letters "μC" are for "microcontroller": the name is pronounced "you-see-Linux", rather than pronouncing the letter mu as in
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
.


History

μClinux was originally created by D. Jeff Dionne and Kenneth Albanowski in 1998. Initially, they targeted the
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...
DragonBall family of embedded 68k processors (specifically the 68EZ328 series used in the 3Com
PalmPilot The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics, later 3Com). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997. Accessories and pricing ...
) on a 2.0.33 Linux kernel. After releasing their initial work, a developer community quickly sprang up extending their work to newer kernels and other microprocessor architectures. In early 1999, support was added for the Motorola (now NXP) ColdFire family of embedded microprocessors. ARM processor support was added later. Although originally targeting 2.0 series Linux kernels, it now has ports based on Linux 2.4 and Linux 2.6. The Linux 2.4 ports were forward ported from the 2.0.36 Linux kernel by Michael Leslie and Evan Stawnyczy during their work at Rt-Control. There were never any μClinux extensions applied to the 2.2 series kernels. Since version 2.5.46 of the Linux kernel, the major parts of μClinux have been integrated with the mainline kernel for a number of processor architectures. Greg Ungerer (who originally ported μClinux to the Motorola ColdFire family of processors) continued to maintain and actively push core μClinux support into the 2.6 series Linux kernels. In this regard, μClinux is essentially no longer a separate fork of Linux. μClinux had support for many architectures, and forms the basis of many products, like network routers, security cameras,
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
or
MP3 players A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, Electric battery, batter ...
,
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...
phone or gateways, scanners, and card readers. Support for several of the original target architectures was dropped in 2018. The obsolete CPU architectures set to be removed in Linux 4.17 and subsequent releases included ADI Blackfin, Etrax CRIS, Fujitsu FR-V, Mitsubishi M32R, Matsushita/
Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...
MN10300 The MN103 (also called MN10300 or AM33) is a 32-bit microprocessor series developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial, now Panasonic Corporation. Most variants include a media processor, working as an image processor or video processor. It is us ...
,
Imagination META The META is a 32-bit multithreaded microprocessor developed by Metagence Technologies Division from Imagination Technologies. First version of META were developed in 2001 as META-1 multithreaded DSP core aimed for audio, radio and video processin ...
(Metag), and Tilera TILE.


Hardware projects

The leanXCam was an
open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
programmable smart camera used for industrial applications in the field of
machine vision Machine vision is the technology and methods used to provide image, imaging-based automation, automatic inspection and analysis for such applications as automatic inspection, process control, and robot guidance, usually in industry. Machine vision ...
that ran under μClinux; the camera won an award at the 2008 VISION tradeshow. As of 2015, the project was discontinued.


Supported architectures

The current list includes: * Altera Nios/
Nios II Nios II is a 32-bit embedded processor architecture designed specifically for the Altera family of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) integrated circuits. Nios II incorporates many enhancements over the original Nios architecture, making ...
*
Amber Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...
(open FPGA core) * ARM ARM7TDMI, ARM Cortex-M3/M4/M7, ARM Cortex-R * Lattice
Mico32 LatticeMico32 is a 32-bit computing, 32-bit microprocessor reduced instruction set computer (RISC) soft core from Lattice Semiconductor optimized for field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). It uses a Harvard architecture, so the instruction and da ...
* NXP 680x0 (Motorola/Freescale 680x0) * Hyperstone E1/E2 (called hyLinux) *
Intel i960 Intel's i960 (or 80960) is a RISC-based microprocessor design that became popular during the early 1990s as an embedded system, embedded microcontroller. It became a best-selling CPU in that segment, along with the competing AMD 29000. In spite ...
* MIPS * NXP ColdFire (Motorola/Freescale ColdFire) *
Xilinx Xilinx, Inc. ( ) was an American technology and semiconductor company that primarily supplied programmable logic devices. The company is renowned for inventing the first commercially viable field-programmable gate array (FPGA). It also pioneered ...
MicroBlaze


No longer supported

* NEC V850E - removed in Linux 2.6.27. *
Hitachi () is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...
/ Renesas H8 (h8300) - removed in Linux 5.19. Before Linux 4.17 the following architectures were also supported: * ADI
Blackfin Blackfin is a family of 16-/32-bit microprocessors developed, manufactured and marketed by Analog Devices. The processors have built-in, fixed-point digital signal processor (DSP) functionality performed by 16-bit multiply–accumulates (MA ...
(blackfin) *
Axis An axis (: axes) may refer to: Mathematics *A specific line (often a directed line) that plays an important role in some contexts. In particular: ** Coordinate axis of a coordinate system *** ''x''-axis, ''y''-axis, ''z''-axis, common names ...
ETRAX (cris) * Fujitsu
FR-V The Fujitsu FR-V (Fujitsu RISC- VLIW) is one of the very few processors ever able to process both a very long instruction word (VLIW) and vector processor instructions at the same time, increasing throughput with high parallel computing while ...
(frv) *
Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...
/Renesas
M32R The M32R is a 32-bit RISC instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Mitsubishi Electric for embedded microprocessors and microcontrollers. The ISA is now owned by Renesas Electronics Corporation, and the company designs and fabricates M32R ...
(m32r)


References


External links

* * * * * , an actively developed continuationBoF- Accelerated Linux Build System - Jeff Shaw, Digi International
/ref> of μClinux ''distribution package'' by Digi {{DEFAULTSORT:UClinux ARM operating systems MIPS operating systems Embedded Linux Embedded operating systems Lightweight Unix-like systems Linux kernel