Linux driver integration simplifies design

Dan Termer, Vice President, Automotive Information Systems Division, Microchip, commented: “We appreciate the Linux Foundation’s support in making the MOST Linux Driver part of the Linux Mainline Kernel 4.3. Incorporating this driver will make it easy for designers who are innovating the cars of the future to combine MOST technology with Linux, thereby significantly shortening time-to-market and reducing development costs."

MOST technology is a Time-Division-Multiplexing (TDM) network that transports different data types on separate channels at low latency and high quality-of-service. The Linux Driver allows for the transport of audio data over the MOST network’s synchronous channel, which can be seamlessly delivered by the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) subsystem, providing system designers the ability to easily transmit audio over MOST technology using a standard soundcard. Additionally, this driver enables the transport of video data with guaranteed bandwidth, by using the MOST network’s isochronous channel and the Video for Linux 2 (V4L2) interface. This feature results in the ability to seamlessly connect standard multimedia frameworks and players over the Linux Driver to a MOST network.

For further ease-of-use, this Linux Driver supports IP-based communication over the standard Linux networking stack and provides simple access to all MOST network data types via the regular device nodes of the Linux Virtual File System (VFS). The driver also allows for easy access to Microchip’s MOST network interface controllers, with support for their USB and MediaLB interfaces.

Support is available for the full version of Microchip’s MOST Linux Driver.