Red Hat expands its ARM Partner Early Access Program

Red Hat has announced that the Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Program has expanded to include more than 35 member companies, ranging from silicon vendors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to independent software vendors (ISVs).

Launched in July 2014 with nine participants, the program aims to deliver, via collaboration, a singular operating platform capable of supporting multiple partner-initiated system designs based on the 64-bit ARMv8-A architecture. As a part of that commitment, program participants have successfully completed the hardware enablement phase by incorporating necessary architectural requirements into the latest version of the development software. Based on that, Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Program participants are now expected to contribute system-specific software and drivers to an open source upstream Linux community for incorporation into future commercial offerings.

“Since its launch just over six months ago, the Red Hat ARM Partner Early Access Program has achieved two critical goals, driving significant interest and participation from hardware vendors and independent software vendors as well as the successful completion of the hardware enablement phase. The program is a perfect example of how Red Hat, along with our vast network of partners and ISVs, drives standardization within specific technology segments, with the ultimate goal of delivery of fully tested and certified solutions to the marketplace,” says Mike Werner, senior director, Global Technology Ecosystems, Red Hat.

Red Hat has a long track record of developing open source software and driving standards for 64-bit ARM architecture in a collaborative and transparent environment as a founding participant in the Linaro Enterprise Group (LEG). By teaming up with Linaro members, many of whom are also participating in its ARM Partner Early Access Program, Red Hat is spearheading the effort to make open source and industry standards inherent to the emerging 64-bit ARM ecosystem. While the initial integration is completed, the ARM Partner Early Access Program plans to continue to accommodate future implementations and system designs by delivering development software, documentation and tooling to participating organizations.