PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a leading global technology distributor, today announced that its MicroZed™ and PicoZed™ SoMs and Zynq Mini-ITX embedded motherboards will now ship with a custom configured version of the recently released [Wind River® Pulsar™ Linux](http://windriver.com/products/operating-systems/pulsar/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=press release&utm_campaign=Pulsar), a small-footprint commercial-grade binary Linux OS based on the Wind River Linux distribution.

Wind River Pulsar Linux simplifies the edge-to-cloud development of Avnet platforms based on the Xilinx Zynq®-7000 All Programmable SoC. With included support for connectivity, firmware updates and communications between the device and cloud, the software infrastructure delivered on the Avnet-designed platforms improves software development efficiency and dramatically decreases time-to-market. Developers can build applications directly in the cloud by accessing Wind River Pulsar Linux within Wind River Helix App Cloud, a cloud-based development environment for building IoT applications.

Remote field upgrade capabilities and access to Linux kernel patches and update streams from Wind River ensure that Internet-connected customer solutions remain current and are protected against security vulnerabilities. This offloads infrastructure maintenance to Wind River to keep the system current and ensures enhanced security in the field. Existing MicroZed, PicoZed and Mini-ITX users can download the Wind River Pulsar Linux image from the Zedboard.org website and install it into their systems at no charge.

“Wind River has done all the upfront configuration necessary to make their commercial-grade Pulsar Linux work on the various Avnet Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC platforms right out of the box,” said Ron Wright, technical marketing manager, Avnet Electronics Marketing. “Not only will this save our customers weeks to months of development time, but it also provides some unique installation, remote updating and on-going security capabilities not found with other standard open source Linux offerings. Because it is pre-installed on all MicroZed, PicoZed and Mini-ITX kits, designers can easily try out the OS risk free.”

“The MicroZed™ and PicoZed™ SoMs and Mini-ITX can cater to a wide range of IoT devices. Their versatile design and wide coverage of communications functions are a great base for launching Pulsar’s powerful features,” said Dinyar Dastoor, vice president and general manager of operating system platforms at Wind River. “By partnering with Avnet, we can offer a solution that is customized and optimized for these hardware platforms, so end users can take advantage of a commercially supported, open source–based distribution, and simply focus on their value-added applications.”

For more information on the pre-configured Wind River Pulsar Linux targeting MicroZed, PicoZed and Mini-ITX, please visit http://microzed.org/content/wind-river.