Canonical announces new enterprise-grade Ubuntu images designed for Intel IoT platforms

The optimised Ubuntu images target industrial computing on next-gen Intel SoCs

15 November 2022: Canonical announced today the availability of new enterprise-grade Ubuntu images designed for next-gen Intel IoT platforms. Purpose-built for industrial environments and use cases, the latest Ubuntu images on Intel hardware deliver the performance, safety, and end-to-end security enterprises expect from the most widely used Operating System (OS) among professional developers with latest Intel technologies pre-enabled and available .

The industrial-grade images are available for both Desktop and Server Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS. New images will be announced soon for Ubuntu Core 20 and 22. Intel and Canonical will jointly provide enterprise-class hardware and software support, ensuring product longevity. Long-term maintenance for 10 years, from security updates to the base OS and critical software packages to its infrastructure components, will enable device manufacturers to concentrate their efforts and redirect resources towards value-add activities. Industrial innovators shipping embedded Linux in production can develop and debug their software quickly and easily with their preferred tools on Ubuntu workstations before building and seamlessly deploying to the target Intel hardware running Ubuntu.

“Coupling the high-performance and energy-efficiency of Intel processors with the built-in security of Ubuntu, we are addressing the most pressing challenges of our enterprise IoT customers”, said Cindy Goldberg, Vice President of Silicon Alliances at Canonical. “By pre-loading  Ubuntu on products built with Intel’s cutting-edge silicon, customers will benefit from the peace of mind of world-class, long-term support”.

Edge-ready Intel compute for production workloads

The production-ready Ubuntu releases are specially designed and optimised across a wide range of Intel processors, providing the building blocks for industrial IoT solutions. Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS and upcoming Ubuntu Core 20 images with v5.15 of the Linux kernel are available for 11th Gen Intel® Core™ and Atom processors, formerly Tiger and Elkhart Lake, respectively, enhanced for IoT.

Production ready images of the latest Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with v5.15 of the Linux kernel are also optimised for use across Intel’s portfolio of edge-ready compute hardware. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Desktop and Server images and soon-to-be-announced Ubuntu Core 22 with long-term support are generally available for 10^th-, 11^th-, and 12^th Gen Intel Core and Atom processors.

As the first Intel® Core™ processors to feature performance hybrid architecture, the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors (codename – Alder Lake) are designed for workload optimization, accelerated AI performance and immersive video experience. The platform offers flexibility and scalability – with its comprehensive lineup of desktop and mobile processor choices, each with differentiated key features, performance levels and graphical capabilities. One of Intel’s latest and most innovative platforms to launch this year for IoT , the 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors are created to enable deployment success and drive more value in many sectors, including smart retail, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, video and security.   

“With the latest Ubuntu images on our silicon, Intel and Canonical are delivering combination of breakthrough performance, next-generation capabilities, robust security and extended product availability.  This will help enable customers to accelerate deployments, drive faster time to results, and move their business forward,” said John Healy, Vice President and General Manager Customer and Ecosystem Enabling Division at Intel. “As part of our ongoing collaboration with Canonical to accelerate digital transformation, our portfolio of IoT hardware helps enterprises navigate the shift to the edge, enabling them to optimise precious engineering resources and get to market faster in a manner that allows them to support today’s and tomorrow’s workloads”.

Stable, secure and optimised Ubuntu for reliable devices

Ubuntu images on Intel hardware are an ideal production-grade solution for enterprises engaging in large-scale deployments and shipping embedded Linux at scale. The optimised images meet stringent release criteria, having undergone extensive manual, automated and stress testing with zero failures or issues.  Dedicated teams at Canonical will continue testing the images end-to-end with the support of Intel engineers,   executing rigorous management of all Linux kernel CVEs, and reviewing and applying all relevant patches. Canonical handles the boards, shortening speed to market, whilst the end-users focus on their value-add software. 

“We have high-volume shipments of Ubuntu-certified boards underway,” said Eric Kao, Director at Advantech.  “By relying on a production-grade Linux distribution supported by a commercial entity over several years, we empower our customers to focus on app development and what drives their business, bringing their products to market faster”.

A consistent Linux experience to shorten time to value

The industrial-grade images form is available for both Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS, Desktop and Server. Enterprise developers can move between Linux platforms, as the same software packages and intuitive user interface are available on all the latest Ubuntu versions. 

Innovators and the embedded community at large can run the same underlying OS on their workstations as on their servers and target environments. Such a consistent Ubuntu experience across form factors makes it easy to test locally before deploying globally, providing device vendors with a smooth path from development to production.

Industrial innovators shipping embedded Linux in production can develop and debug their software quickly and easily with their preferred tools on Ubuntu Desktop before building and seamlessly deploying to the target Intel hardware. Running a homogenous commercial OS foundation across environments ensures smooth integration between systems. Developers don’t have to account for differences between operating systems, and no time is lost resolving issues caused by software variation. This boosts innovation velocity and enables enterprises to get their applications to market far more quickly.

Register for our joint webinar to explore how optimised Ubuntu on next-gen Intel SoCs accelerates IoT adoption.

Download Ubuntu for Intel IoT platforms