Marvell (http://www.plugcomputer.org) has released the open source Easy Plug Computer Installer (EPI) to simplify Plug Computing software deployment. EPI is the first ever wizard-based installation tool for Marvell’s Plug Computer.
It provides more than 20,000 Plug Computer developers worldwide with a faster, easier way to integrate their low-power and affordable Plug Computing solutions, according to the folks at Marvell.
EPI is designed to make it easier for Plug Computer developers to program new applications while preparing consumers for the day when they can order and download applications online for their personalized Plug Computer. It provides interaction with the Marvell ARMADA 300/310 processor family, purportedly making it easier to bring performance-bound digital home applications and services to market. EPI and supporting information is currently available for download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/esia/ .
“Marvell wants to encourage more developers to explore Plug Computing and the high performance, eco-friendly open source computing platform,” says Viren Shah, senior eirector of Marketing Embedded System-on-a-Chip (SoC) Product Line from Marvell’s Enterprise Business Unit.
EPI can be used to install Linux distributions, file systems, file system images or single applications. The application provides USB key and HTTP-based list retrieval, further expanding the ways in which developers can access and update Plug Computers. The application is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 and higher, Fedora 11 (32/64bit), Ubuntu 9.04 (32bit) and Windows XP SP2/3.