Imagination Technologies, through Alexandru Voica, informed Softpedia about the progress made in adding support for the Debian GNU/Linux 8 (Jessie) operating system to their Creator Ci20 microcomputer.
The Debian GNU/Linux 8 OS for Creator Ci20 is powered by Linux kernel 3.18.21 LTS, about which we reported a while ago that it brings a great number of improvements to the MIPS hardware architecture. For those of you who are not in the loop, we inform you that the Creator Ci20 development board is powered by an MIPS CPU.
New features included in the Debian 8 for Ci20 distribution are significant driver updates to the Wi-Fi firmware and PowerVR graphics, multiple updates to the NAND memory driver, and many under-the-hood enhancements that promise to improve the overall stability and speed of the system.
Moreover, the hard working developers at Imagination Technologies managed to optimize the file system for faster startup times, to add a DRM-based PowerVR SGX driver for allowing apps to use the X Window Manager, as well as to implement support for adapting to the monitor’s resolution during boot time.
Among other changes, we can mention an increase in the Ethernet download speeds from 30Mbps to 70Mbps, and support for accessing the PC-style indicator LEDs that display the Flash I/O and CPU activity on the new square-shaped Creator Ci20 development boards.
“Today we are announcing that our Creator Ci20 microcomputer (www.imgtec.com/creator) is getting a big update to Debian 8, up one release from the standard Debian 7 image that shipped with the original device,” says Alexandru Voica, Senior Technology Marketing Specialist at Imagination Technologies.
Android 5.0 support for Creator Ci20 coming soon
In addition to the great Debian GNU/Linux 8 (Jessie) support, Imagination Technologies managed to update the Android 4.4 support for Creator Ci20 with external camera and USB storage support, better startup times, Ethernet settings menu improvements, Linux kernel enhancements, as well as multiple changes to current audio features.
In some other awesome news, Imagination Technologies informed us that the engineering team currently finalizes the Android 5.0 support for Creator Ci20 and a release is imminent. You can download Debian GNU/Linux 8 for Creator Ci20 right now from Imagination Technologies’ website.
We’ve updated our Creator Ci20 microcomputer to #Debian 8; read about all the improvements on our blog http://t.co/8BBWtJXaNX #MIPS #PowerVR — Imagination Tech (@ImaginationPR) September 14, 2015
#Debian 8 comes to Creator Ci20: #Linux kernel 3.18, DRM-based #PowerVR driver, increased Ethernet performance http://t.co/DB0mW8xBQi #MIPS — Alexandru Voica (@alexvoica) September 14, 2015
Via Softpedia