Ouya, the Android-powered game console that began its career as a Kickstarter project, has just received $15 million in venture capital funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). For those who haven’t followed Ouya’s wild ride, its Kickstarter project generated a feeding frenzy of $8.6 million in pledges, more than 900 percent of its $950K goal.

Aaeon announced a Linux-friendly ‘EPIC’ form-factor SBC (single-board computer) based on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N2600 processor, which is bottom-mounted for efficient heat transfer. The EPC-CV1 supports up to 2GB RAM, offers dual-display HD video output, provides Gig-Ethernet, USB, serial, and SATA ports, and accommodates a 3G cellular module and SIM.

Many LinuxGizmos readers are aware that LinuxDevices.com has been dormant ever since its February 2012 acquisition from Ziff Davis Enterprise by Quinstreet. Despite the lack of any updates over the past year, the vast LinuxDevices news archive continued to serve as a valuable archive of embedded Linux information, history, and memorabilia; but earlier this week, the plug was pulled and LinuxDevices disappeared from the Web.

Marvell announced a new member of its Linux-ready Armada 300 line of system-on-chips (SOCs) designed for a wide variety of networking applications. The Armada 375 is equipped with a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor clocked at either 800MHz or 1GHz, and offers gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, SATA 2.0, and PCI Express connectivity.

Adlink has released detailed specs on its first tiny computer-on-module (COM) to support the new ARM-focused SMARC standard. The tiny industrial-targeted LEC-3517 module starts with a 600MHz TI Sitara AM3517 processor, adds 256MB RAM and 512MB NAND flash, mixes in a variety of interfaces ranging from camera links to CAN Bus, and tops it off with OS support that includes Linux and Android.

Grid2Home has announced immediate availability of ZigBee-certified software for integrating mesh-based wireless networking into Smart Grid-aware devices. G2H-ZIP now supports all major CPU architectures and physical layers, including ZigBee, WiFi, and Power Line Communications, and is usable in devices running Linux and various real-time operating systems, says the company.

Broadcom is sampling a system-on-chip (SOC) aimed at control-plane and edge-networking devices. The StrataGX BCM58525 is equipped with a dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, and features a packet-buffer subsystem, gigabit Ethernet PHY, cryptographic and programmable packet-handling accelerators, and a Linux development kit.

MediaTek has already received orders for over one million units of a dual-core Cortex-A7 processor it announced May 2, says DigiTimes. Designed for affordable Android smartphones with up to qHD (960×540) displays, the 28nm-fabricated MT6572 SOC (system-on-chip) augments its dual 1.2GHz cores with integrated radios for WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, and GPS functions, as well as an HSPA+/TD-SCDMA baseband.

In this guest column, Linaro CEO George Grey examines the expanding ARM ecosystem, discusses emerging and “disruptive” market opportunities for ARM technology, and highlights Linaro’s recent ARM Linux software development progress, working group formation, and membership growth.

Adlink announced a pair of resistive touchpanels that run Linux, Android, or Windows 7 on a 1GHz TI Sitara AM3715 ARM Cortex-A8 processor. The 7-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel SP-7W61 and the 10.4-inch, 800 x 600 SP-1061 are equipped with WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, serial, and USB connectivity, and consume only 5.9 to 6.1 Watts.

Hot on heels of the debut of AMD’s Embedded G-Series SOCs (system-on-chips), Win Enterprises announced a 3.5-inch form-factor SBC (single-board computer) based on the new parts. The MB-60830 SBC is available in dual- and quad-core models clocked up to 2GHz, provides multiple display outputs, dual Mini-PCIe expansion, and typical SBC I/O interfaces, and can support -40 to +85° C operation.

Intel announced its long-awaited Silvermont overhaul of the Intel Atom core, based on 22nm-fabricated, Tri-Gate 3D transistors. Aimed primarily at smartphones and tablets, the Silvermont supports up to eight cores per SOC (system-on-chip) and promises to offer about 3x the peak performance of the current Atoms or up to 5x their power efficiency.

Roboteq launched a Kickstarter project to build an I/O add-in card for robotics navigation that stacks atop a Linux-based Raspberry Pi board. The RIO (Raspberry IO) is based on a 32-bit STM32 microcontroller, and includes a 3A DC/DC converter, several serial interfaces, a CAN interface, 21 GPIO, and an optional module with an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer for robotics navigation.

Mozilla released its first fully-baked simulation engine for Firefox OS, while the first Geeksphone “Keon” development phones for the open source Linux-based mobile operating system remain sold out. Firefox OS Simulator 3.0 adds rotation and geolocation API simulations, faster boot-times, and a push-to-device feature that lets users transfer apps to a developer phone.

If you’re squinting as you read this on a smartphone, here’s some good news: mobile fonts may soon be clearing up. In collaboration with Google and the FreeType project, Adobe has contributed its CFF (Compact Font Format) rasterizer to the open source FreeType font engine.

Tablet shipments continued to “surge” in the first quarter of 2013, growing 142 percent year-over-year, according to market analyst IDC’s latest “Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker” report. Additionally, Android vendors had an extremely strong first quarter, shipping 27.8 million tablets versus Apple’s 19.5 million iPad and iPad mini devices.

The new Linux 3.9 kernel adds driver support for tiny MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) devices made by ST, including accelerometers and motion sensors. Other Linux 3.9 features that affect the embedded world include SSD caching support, a lightweight suspend power mode, and support for Android’s “Goldfish” virtualization system.

Abalta Technologies announced an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) solution that inexpensively mirrors browser content from smartphones or tablets to Linux-enabled “head” units. The company’s Weblink IVI demo consists of a client app running on a Raspberry Pi-based simulated head unit acting as a remote touchscreen for WiFi- or USB-connected smartphones running a companion server app.

Via Technologies announced a tiny, low-power Pico-ITX SBC with optional 3G connectivity and battery power support, aimed at in-vehicle and mobile applications. The VAB-600 is based on an 800MHz ARM Cortex-A9 system-on-chip (SOC) with on-chip graphics acceleration, offers Ethernet, WiFi, and 3G connectivity, operates from 0 to 60° C, and runs either embedded Linux or Android 4.x.

Shezhen, China-based Promate Technologies claims to have created the world’s first tablet-projector. The “LumiTab” sports a modest 1024×600 7-inch IPS screen, runs Android 4.2, and uses a Texas Instruments digital-light-processing (DLP) chip to render “incredibly sharp 1080p HD images” on walls and projection screens, according to the company.