Alliance to secure mobile communications

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Nov 24, 2005

National ICT Australia is working with Qualcomm to use NICTA versions of the L4 microkernel and the Iguana operating system with Qualcomm's MSM chipsets.

National ICT Australia (NICTA), Australia's centre of excellence in information and communications technology research, is working with Qualcomm to use NICTA versions of the L4 microkernel and the Iguana operating system together with select versions of Qualcomm's Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipsets.

The L4 microkernel and Iguana operating system provide a high-performance, secure platform for embedded systems such as mobile communication devices.

"We are pleased to be working with Qualcomm to utilise the L4 microkernel as the foundation for a trusted computing platform on embedded wireless devices", said Professor Gernot Heiser, leader of NICTA's Embedded, Real-Time and Operating Systems (ERTOS) programme.

Commenting on the announcement, NICTA CEO Dr David Skellern said: "Although a small project initially, we hope to further develop our relationship with Qualcomm through demonstrating the innovative research being conducted in Australia".

"This collaboration illustrates how NICTA is facilitating access to international markets for locally developed research".

As the leader of the ERTOS team, Professor Heiser is involved in NICTA research projects concerned with the development of a software framework for secure embedded systems, untrusted device drivers, and a formally verified operating system kernel.