The Linux Foundatoin has announced that consumer electronics company Panasonic has become its newest Gold Member, the second-highest corporate membership tier. The Foundation has three tiers of membership: Platinum, Gold and Silver. Of the approximately 100 members, there are currently a total of seven Platinum members and eleven Gold members including Panasonic. Other Gold members include AMD, China Mobile, Cisco, HP, Google, Motorola, Nokia and Novell.

According to the Foundation, Panasonic will help to "inform the direction of embedded Linux and open compliance initiatives" and participate in embedded Linux initiatives, such as the Consumer Electronics (CE) Workgroup (the successor of CE Linux Forum) and the Yocto Project. Panasonic is no stranger to working with Linux; it was a founding member of the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF), which is now part of the Linux Foundation – CELF Members who are not already members of the Linux Foundation can optionally be grandfathered in at the Silver membership level.

Discussing the announcement, Panasonic System Engineer Center Director Kazuo Kajimoto said, "For more than 90 years, we've been committed to pushing the limits of innovation in consumer electronics," adding that, "The rise of Linux in our market gives us new opportunities to push those limits. By joining The Linux Foundation, we will be able to work directly with the people and companies who can help us maximize this technology for next-generation devices and technologies."

The Linux Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the task of promoting the growth of Linux. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is himself sponsored by the foundation.

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