Source: www.theregister.co.uk

Days after Trolltech announced it had signed up with LiMo Foundation, after dropping out of the LiPS Forum last year, it has signed a deal with Broadcom to optimise its code for the chip vendor’s VoIP hardware.

Broadcom has several multimedia processors suited to low-power applications. This deal focuses on its VoIP (BCM1103) processor and latest multimedia co-processor (BCM1180), the combination of which enables everything from video conferencing to Gigibit Ethernet, which should indicate the range of devices that the companies will be targeting.

While it’s possible to do VoIP, and even video conferencing, in software, having dedicated hardware reduces the power consumption massively, and can also enable devices without a high-end central processor. It does reduce flexibility to some extent - and can be more expensive - but the embedding of dedicated VoIP hardware should make VoIP more accessible for low-end devices, if properly supported by the software.

By working closely with Broadcom, Trolltech can be sure its platform properly supports the Broadcom chips, and the companies can pitch the combination of hardware and software to handset manufacturers.

Trolltech dropped out of LiPS last year, apparently as a result of that group selecting the GTK graphical layer rather than Trolltech’s Qtopia product - though that is disputed by Trolltech, who claim they were frustrated by the slow speed of progress in LiPS.

LiMo certainly seems to be the faster-developing Linux platform, spurred on by the (still largely theoretical) threat from Google’s Android, so Broadcom would do well to have their chips designed in. Still, claims that such a platform will make mobile-video conferencing a reality should be taken with the usual scepticism. ®

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Update:
You can also read the news release and discussion going on at trixbox!, There might come a fork of trixbox already.!

MySQL’s Brian "Krow" Aker is reporting that Trixbox, a asterisk Linux distribution, has been acquired by Fonality.
Brian thinks it is a cool transaction.
Brians other thought (which caught my eyes right away) are;
"Fonality just moved into first place for the telephony Linux vertical stack, and this is a trillion dollar market, one in which Microsoft doesn’t have the technology to respond with.

Today the online world for Telephony is like the world for networks at the beginning of the 80’s. Google, Skype, and the rest are creating their own lakes hoping to become the ocean. The same could be said of Compuserve, AOL, and Prodigy around 1993. Telephony on the internet is not about being locked into any single provider, it is about being able to talk to anyone, anywhere."
Read more of his thoughts at his blog.
Brian himself got the information from VoIP & Gadgets Blog on TMCnet. A blog I frequent a lot to get voip IP Telephony dose of the day. But I missed this one and to come through /. –> Brian’s Blog –> VoIP & Gadgets Blog. Anyway both are good reads. Read VoIP & Gadgets Blog to get the facts first and then Brian’s to digest and wash it down.