OSS adapter stack for Ethernet connection

Austrian researchers have developed an open-source software stack that will help developers to connect devices cost-effectively to industrial Ethernet, says Drives&Controls.

The EtherNet/IP Adapter Stack, developed by the Automation and Control Institute at Vienna's University of Technology, is aimed at developers seeking low- or no-cost communication stacks for simple EtherNet/IP products.

Developers will be able to use the stack in products such as sensors, actuators, simple drives, pneumatics and I/O components. Various vendors are already developing products based on the stack and the first of these are expected to reach the market during 2010.

Microsoft has open sourced its .Net Micro development framework for small devices, says Rethink Wireless.

Version 4.0 of the framework has been released under the Apache 2.0 licence, although some features have been excluded. The .Net Micro Framework provides a Web-based development and execution environment for small devices such as phones.

According to Peter Galli, senior open source community manager at Microsoft, while the licence will allow customers to take the code and make specialised versions to fit their needs, there is a need for Microsoft to stay involved to avoid any possible fragmentation of the platform.

MindTouch released its Sharepoint-like software, known as MindTouch Cloud, which is set to put them in competition with the likes of Google Apps, Google Wave, Zoho and many others, reports TMCnet.

MindTouch Cloud includes instant messaging, video collaboration and status updates, which enterprise workers use to collaborate on documents, as well as charts, graphs, reports and tables that represent the data from the business applications.

The company's CEO, Aaron Fulkerson, said his company is targeting Microsoft's SharePoint collaboration platform and Google Apps, which offer classic document and spreadsheet applications without blending in the business data.