TimeSys Announces Embedded Linux Support for the PowerPC 8260 Processor

Complete "Out-of-the-Box" Embedded Linux Solution for Embedded Planet's EP8260 Now Available

Pittsburgh, PA and Cleveland, OH - March 6, 2002 -- TimeSys Corporation, a pioneer and leader in Embedded Linux and Java(tm) development technologies, today announced that it has extended support of its embedded Linux solution for the PowerPC family of processor architectures with the release of a board support package (BSP) for Embedded Planet's PowerPC-based EP8260. The first of a number of upcoming turnkey solutions from TimeSys and Embedded Planet, the EP8260 coupled with TimeSys Linux offers embedded engineers a low-cost, reliable and flexible "out-of-the-box" solution for the development of embedded systems.

"Our EP8260 coupled with TimeSys' Linux solutions offers embedded systems designers a complete, out-of-the-box solution for building low-cost, high-performance telecommunications and network edge devices," said Mark Lowdermilk, CEO of Embedded Planet. "This turnkey solution, including the hardware, operating environment, development tools and real-time capabilities, is available today for system engineers building tomorrow's devices."

Targeted at meeting the system design requirements of the telecommunications industry, the TimeSys Linux BSP for the Embedded Planet EP8260 provides a complete embedded Linux solution. The Embedded Planet EP8260 Linux Kit is factory-configured with TimeSys Linux GPL burned directly into Flash to further minimize the time it takes an engineer to become productive. The TimeSys Linux GPL installed on the low cost, flexible and small form-factor Embedded Planet EP8260 board gives systems designers everything they need to get to market quickly.

The TimeSys EP8260 BSP features TimeSys Linux GPL, consisting of a fully featured preemptible kernel that extends a standard Linux distribution to support the predictable, extremely low-latency response requirements of embedded systems based on the PowerPC architecture. Also available are TimeSys modules that transform TimeSys Linux GPL to meet the performance requirements of applications ranging from handheld devices and telecommunication switches to process control and avionics. TimeSys Linux/Real-Time delivers additional capabilities to deliver full response predictability to TimeSys Linux GPL. TimeSys Linux/CPU and /Net provides capabilities for dynamic load handling and system overload protection. Used in conjunction with TimeSys' cross-platform development tools, TimeSys provides a complete embedded Linux-based solution for the Embedded Planet EP8260.

"Our partnership with Embedded Planet promises to deliver complete embedded Linux solutions to the community of designers in a manner such that they can realize all of their requirements for reliability, performance, and responsiveness, right out of the box," said TimeSys President and CEO Larry Weidman. "Our BSP for the EP8260 enables systems designers to accelerate the development process and realize a faster time-to-market for next generation telecommunications and consumer devices. You can expect to see more solutions like this from TimeSys and Embedded Planet in the near future."

TimeSys' BSP for the Embedded Planet EP8260 delivers a complete solution for embedded engineers that include:

Support for the EP8260 for TimeSys' complete embedded-Linux product offering
Linux board-hosted GNU tool chains
PC-based Linux cross-platform GNU tool chains
Timing analysis core for use by TimeSys' event tracing and timing visualization tool: TimeTrace
Certified device drivers
User and API documentation

For Windows-based cross platform development, TimeSys will provide Embedded Planet customers with 60-day evaluation copies of:

TimeStorm: TimeSys' Windows-hosted Integrated Development Environment for cross-platform development
TimeTrace: a Windows-hosted tool for event tracing and timing visualization
TimWiz: a Windows-hosted real-time analysis and simulation tool

The TimeSys BSP for the EP8260 is now available for download at www.timesys.com.

TimeSys will be demonstrating the full range of capabilities of its embedded Linux operating system, development tools, and proprietary performance enhancing modules at the Embedded Systems Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, March 12-16.

About Embedded Planet

Embedded Planet was founded in 1997 and has pioneered the Design, Develop and Deploy process in OEM systems development of Internet connected devices. The company provides small form factor, low cost computing solutions for Motorola PowerPC 823, 823e, 850, 855, 857, 860, 862, 8255 and 8260 as well as the IBM PowerPC 405GP. Each computing engine includes Embedded Planet's PlanetCore, which provides firmware and utilities for burning flash, booting the target operating system, setup, diagnostics and utilities of the hardware. Embedded Planet also provides system design and system integration, including intellectual property, component solutions and development of turnkey products. For more information, please visit www.embeddedplanet.com.

About TimeSys

TimeSys is a pioneer and leader in Embedded Linux and Java development technologies. Its products allow design engineers to leverage the power, flexibility and reliability of a new class of development tools for advanced embedded systems for a variety of markets and applications, covering the complete performance range from non-real-time to deterministic hard real-time, using both open-source and proprietary technologies. TimeSys is considered the top choice by systems architects for developing more robust, less expensive, single API Linux solutions for embedded systems. TimeSys was the first to create a reservation technology that guarantees system response, even in overloaded systems. TimeSys solutions offer completely predictable and fast response time performance. For more information about TimeSys, please visit www.timesys.com.

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