Motorola and the Eclipse Foundation, an open source community focused on providing a universal development platform, announced today that Motorola has joined Eclipse as a Strategic Developer Member. As part of this commitment, Motorola will hold a seat on the Board of Directors and participate in the Architecture, Requirements, and Planning Councils of the Eclipse Foundation.

Motorola is also working with the Eclipse Foundation to propose an Eclipse Tools for mobile Linux (TmL) project, part of the Device Software Development Platform (DSDP) Top-Level Project, to provide the extensible frameworks and exemplary tools for the development of C++ applications targeting mobile devices.

Motorola will contribute software, engineering resources, and its mobile expertise to work with the Eclipse community and across the mobile industry, to develop a comprehensive development environment for mobile Linux platforms. Developers working within the Eclipse community will be encouraged to contribute expertise and know-how to help reduce testing times and increase market-ready mobile application development.

"With the support of the Eclipse community, Motorola hopes to drive frameworks and tools to support all phases of the application lifecycle for developers creating and deploying C/C++ applications targeting mobile Linux platforms," said Christy Wyatt, Vice President Ecosystem Development, Motorola Mobile Devices. "Over time, we hope the Eclipse TmL project will provide a home for mobile Linux extensions across a wide range of existing and future Eclipse projects."

"Mobile Linux is an extremely compelling initiative and Eclipse is pleased to be working towards offering developers extended options to develop in this environment," said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation. "Working with Motorola, a mobile industry leader with a strong developer ecosystem, allows us to merge their wireless expertise with our technology platforms to create a seamless offering for the Mobile Linux developer community."

Motorola's membership in Eclipse is another important step in reaching the company's goal to further awareness and adoption of Linux in the mobile space. Last week, Motorola and industry leaders announced their intent to build a Linux-based platform for mobile devices and create a foundation to support it. In addition, Motorola recently launched MOTODEV, Motorola's new global developer and ISV program, as well as opensource.motorola.com, a new resource aimed at sharing source code, original Motorola open source projects and new ideas and information with developers around the world. The site features source code, including kernel and drivers, for Motorola's Linux-based devices. It also features Java technology including Java test frameworks, sample test cases, and will soon host code, documents, and specifications for Motorola-lead JSRs (Java Specification Requests) such as MIDP 3.0 (Mobile Information Device Profile).