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Linaro Connect 2025 Demo Friday - Introducing our Demos

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Linaro

Tuesday, May 6, 20257 min read

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One week to go until Linaro Connect starts!

Every year at Linaro Connect, we finish the event on a high with Demo Friday - a Linaro Connect staple. Demo Friday is a Technology Showcase where demos showcasing innovative Arm-based technology are presented.

This year we have got twenty demos planned - check out this blog to learn about the demos that will be on display.

If you haven’t already, make sure to register here to secure your spot.

Virtio Demos

Virtio is a standardized interface that allows virtual machines (VMs) to access hardware devices such as network, disk, console and GPU in an efficient way. Linaro is working to establish Virtio as the standard interface between hypervisors. This will allow mobile, industrial or automotive platforms to migrate between hypervisors and reuse the backend implementation.

At Demo Friday, we have three demos planned showcasing Virtio:

  • Virtio-msg - Virtio-msg is a new virtio transport layer that allows virtio to work in new situations. The demo will be running on virtual hardware as well as on actual hardware.

  • Using Virtio-Msg to enable Heterogeneous CPU communication via PCIe - In this demo, AMD will showcase how they are using the newly emerging virtio-msg transport to enable cross-device communication across heterogeneous CPU subsystems. Virtio-msg is being openly developed in collaboration with Linaro, ARM, AMD, Google and others.

  • Virtio-msg FFA - virtio-msg is being developed for multiple use cases such as heterogeneous and mobile. FF-A implementation has been done for the mobile use case and in this demo a VM will communicate via virtio-msg over FFA.

Android Ecosystem Demos

Linaro plays an instrumental role in supporting Android Open Source Project (AOSP), continually getting security patches and features upstreamed so that the community as a whole can benefit. At this year’s Demo Friday we have three demos planned around the work we are currently doing in this space together with our members and the open source community.

  • Cuttlefish + Generic Android Bootloaders - Cuttlefish is a virtual device platform meant for Android development and supported by Google since 2017. This demo will showcase the platform.

  • Generic Boot Loader (GBL) running on Qualcomm RB3/5, Android-mainline and Pixel 6 and more - At Linaro there is a team that works closely with Google to support their upstreaming efforts. Linaro’s Google team will have a table where they will showcase several demos.

  • GBL in action on Devboards - GBL is a generic Android boot solution leveraging EFI. This demo will showcase it running on Linaro’s devboards.

Qualcomm Technology Demos

Over the years Linaro has worked closely with Qualcomm on upstreaming their platforms. At the upcoming Demo Friday we have several demos showcasing some of these efforts. Qualcomm is also a sponsor of Linaro Connect and will have a table showcasing how to streamline on-device AI.

  • End-to-End Video Hardware Acceleration on Snapdragon X Elite Laptops - This demo is showcasing the current status of VPU based acceleration. The demo presenter will also be presenting a talk with the same name earlier in the week.

  • TF-A, OP-TEE and U-Boot on Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 - In this demo, attendees can see TF-A and OP-TEE run on the RB3 Gen 2 IoT platform, including DSP support.

  • Qualcomm Arm64 Laptops, AI, Camera and more - On this demo table, the Linaro Qualcomm team will showcase multiple demos highlighting some of the work done this year.

Arm based AI PC Demo from CIX

For the past three years, CIX Technology has worked closely with Linaro, Arm, Microsoft and Qualcomm on building the Windows on Arm ecosystem for native development which unlocks better user experiences. At the upcoming Linaro Connect, CIX will have a bigger presence than usual as one of our sponsors - attendees will see them throughout the week and at Demo Friday as they showcase the CIX P1, a heterogeneous SoC with powerful Armv9 CPU, Immortalis GPU and dedicated NPU. In their demo, they will show the Radxa Orion O6 PC Devekit and Project Pavo Laptop Prototype. On these devices, CIX can run on-device GenAI inference with LLMS like Llama, Qwen and Deepseek. Linux desktop and OpenGL acceleration via the GPU will also be shown.

Testing Demos

Linaro has long played a pivotal role in testing, having created LAVA - the widely used automated validation architecture aimed at testing deployments of systems based around the Linux kernel on ARM devices. At Linaro Connect 2025, we have three demos highlighting some of our work in this area.

  • ONELab - At Embedded World 2025, Linaro announced the commercial launch of ONELab, the industry’s most comprehensive testing platform for IoT and Edge Devices. This demo will showcase ONELab in action.

  • Linaro Automation Appliance Phone MIB - This demo will showcase automated Android testing on a phone using the Linaro Automation Appliance (LAA) and the Phone Mechanical Interface Board (MIB)

  • LAA on LAA: inception testing showcase - In this demo, LAA capabilities will be validated while running on another LAA board and being CI tested (through usual pipelines including technologies like LAVA, SQUAD, GitLab).

Toolchain demo on using LLMs in regression hunting

In this demo, Linaro will show how to use LLMs to find regressions in post-commit CI and avoid bisecting. For the purpose of this demonstration, the Claude Sonnet 3.5 and the LLVM buildbots will be used.

Community Initiatives

  • Open-source friendly BMC development setup - Datacenters have long leveraged Baseboard Management Controllers (BMC) to manage Server fleets remotely.The lack of an easily accessible, virtual platform hampers experimentation and creativity unleashing collaboration from communities. The demo presenters have created a platform, based on the Arm Fixed Virtual Platform, joining up a virtual Host processor and a virtual BMC. This demo will showcase the platform!

  • Forging Career pathways with Educational Passages - Educational Passages is a global nonprofit transforming STEM education by inspiring and equipping the next generation of innovators. At Linaro Connect, they will showcase how the Educational Passages Mini boat Program (www.educationalpassages.org/about) leverages IoT and embedded systems – powered by Linaro-driven technologies – to advance ocean literacy on a global scale. Their 1,5 meter long uncrewed sailboats, designed and built by students, are equipped with GPS trackers and cutting-edge sensors to collect and transmit real-time oceanic data as they voyage across the world ocean.

    These open-source, technology-integrated boats serve not only as a tool for education but as a bridge connecting students, educators, and communities to the ocean and each other. Educational Passageways are participating at Demo Friday to share their work but also to improve their systems and impact. With new technologies on the horizon, they can add more sensors, utilize edge computing to auto process more images and conserve energy and cost, and most importantly inspire the next generation.

How to see the demos

If you are attending Linaro Connect, we look forward to welcoming you to Demo Friday which will take place on (you guessed it) Friday 16 May, 1-3pm. For those unable to join live, we will record several of the demos and share online following the event so keep your eyes peeled for social media posts announcing these videos!

If you’d simply like to learn more about Linaro Connect, feel free to contact us on events@linaro.org or check out the Linaro Connect webpage for more information.