First post - Launching an open source initiative

A bit of background

It all started with Wi-Fi - also known as wireless local area networking (or in short WLAN). This technology has become extremely popular in the past few years and overall customers' and consumers' interest and demand for it has increased significantly. Here at TI, we have been designing WLAN solutions for years, meeting that demand. But as most vendors, we were mostly focused on getting the features to the market with proprietary software solutions. Along the years, Linux has become the dominant operating system in mobile devices and as such, we tried to find the right formula, the right mix of features versus a compatible solution that follows the evolution of the Linux OS.

About two years ago we have came across this wonderful Linux wireless community (http://wireless.kernel.org) where we finally found the right balance between advanced features and a platform that gives us the opportunity to contribute from our experience. TI is known for its mobile-grade wireless connectivity solutions and many times we have introduced low power optimized devices to the world that go into battery operated products. We felt that we have the opportunity to contribute from our experience to the community.

 

A time for a change

Many of you who worked - or are still working - in organizations that moved from proprietary software development to free and open source software (FOSS) solutions, are probably familiar with the difficulties involved. It essentially requires re-education across the organization. I really believe it takes a mature organization to be able to sustain such a major transformation and I'm proud to be part of it at TI.  We have made a significant effort in sharing and contributing our know-how in mobile applications to the Linux community through features such as SDIO runtime power management, suspend/resume, wake-on-wireless (upstream in process) and more to come.

 

We have no intention to stop at WLAN - in fact, since TI has the broadest portfolio of wireless connectivity technologies, we intend to introduce and contribute support for additional ones in the near future.

 

So what is OpenLink you ask?

OpenLink(tm) is an initiative focused on providing a wide range of wireless connectivity solutions for Linux-based operating systems. The idea is to enable community developers who target battery-powered products to have easy access to these technologies. OpenLink is also a community, offering resources and support. We invite you to join and contribute.

 

We wanted to give this project a cool name that reflects our intention: to introduce a true, open source solution that easily enables wireless connections between different devices -- whether you are using WLAN, Bluetooth, Bluetooth low energy, ANT, ZigBee® or other connectivity technologies. We have made OpenLink drivers work on the most available platforms out there, including BeagleBoard and PandaBoard, and would love to hear your suggestions for other platforms you’re working on or support your needs.

And with that, please welcome the OpenLink project.