Consumer Electronics

Mission:

The mission of the CE workgroup is to promote and enhance Linux for use in embedded systems initially focusing on consumer electronics products, then extending to other industries appropriately.

The CE workgroup helps for industry activities with realizing requirements from the industry working with the Linux community, and solves long term issues such as device drivers and fragmented use of Linux in the embedded space.

Background:

The CE workgroup is a successor of the CE Linux Forum (CELF) which was established in 2003, dedicated to the development and enhancement of Linux-based embedded devices, and merged into the Linux Foundation for better alignment to the Linux community in 2010.

Major Activities:

1. Open Project

Each year, the CE workgroup (CELF) spends money on contract work to improve Linux for use in embedded systems.  Some of projects that the CE workgroup (CELF) has sponsored in the past include Linux-tiny, DirectFB enhancement, smem, U-boot and kexecboot improvements, and Squashfs and YAFFS mainlining.  The process is open to the public, and members of the public submit to the CE workgroup ideas and proposals for project that they think should be worked on to enhance embedded Linux.  For more detail about proposal format, contact, and deadline, please visit Embedded Linux Wiki. - http://elinux.org/Project_Proposals_for_2012

2. Long Term Support Initiative (LTSI)

To minimize fragmented use of Linux in embedded systems, and accelerate further innovation of Linux with incorporating innovations from embedded system engineers, the CE workgroup has proposed a project, LTSI, and revealed the idea at a BoF in LinuxCon NA in 2011. 

The idea is to create a long-term support industry tree along with a community's long-term stable tree, and maintain it with back-porting new features/innovations which are beneficial for the industry.  The life of community's long-term stable tree is expected to be 2 years, and that of an industry tree is expected to be 2-3 years which is a typical life of consumer electroincs products like Smartphones.  In parallel, the CE workgroup maintains an industry staging tree to solicit innovations from embedded system engineers to accelerate innovations of upstream Linux.  Innovations and fixes in an industry staging tree will be merged into a community's stating tree appropriately.

The first release, LTSI3.0 will be released on June 2012.  For more detail, please visit LTSI web site. - http://ltsi.linuxfoundation.org

3. Regional Technical Conference (Jamboree)

The CE workgroup has been hosting a series of regional technical conference, called technical jamboree, currently in Japan and Korea.  It is not a formal technical conference, but an informal discussion place to exchange ideas and discuss technologies freely in an open source community manner.  For date and place information, please visit Embedded Linux Wiki. - http://elinux.org/Events

Membership Structure:

The CE workgroup has two key oganizations in a workgroup.  One is the Steerling Committee (SC) that handles operational issues such as strategies, directions and funding, and the other is the Architecture Group (AG) which handles technical issues that include open projects and technical initiatives such as the LTSI.  SC members will be elected by a vote of SC members, and its term is 2 years.

Becoming an AG member : 

1. Apply for a CEWG membership with indicating that you are a corporate member and interested in becoming an AG member.  (Note that you do not need to be an AG member to participate in any of CEWG activities such as open projects, technical events and technical initiatives like the LTSI.  Those are OPEN for everyone.  If you are interested in activly participating in techical direction discussions and decisions, you may want to be an AG member.)

2. Once your membership is qualified, you will be added in the AG mailing list, and receive invitations to AG meetings.

Upcoming Events:

• Regional conference in Japan - Tokyo, Japan, September 20, 2012 - Japan Technical Jamboree 42
• LinuxCon North America - San Diego, CA, August 29-31, 2012 - http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/linuxcon
• LTSI Workshop - Exective Center Room 4, Sheraton Hotel & Marina - Dan Diego CA, 10:30-12:00 August 29, 2012 (Open for everyone)

References:

• CE Linux Forum : http://www.celinuxforum.org
• Embedded Linux Wiki : http://elinux.org
• CE Linux Forum Video Archive : http://www.celinuxforum.org/VideoArchive/index.html