MontaVista Software and Xilinx Announce Complete Linux Development Environment for Virtex-II Pro FPGA
SAN JOSE & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8,
2002--MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded
revolution, and Xilinx Inc. (Nasdaq:XLNX - News), the leader in complete
programmable system solutions, today announced that MontaVista(TM)
Linux® Professional Edition will support the Xilinx® Virtex-II
Pro(TM) FPGA. This technology advancement enables developers of
embedded Linux products to target a completely programmable,
re-programmable and field-upgradable system platform. The
collaboration allows the broad base of Linux developers to accelerate
their embedded designs with the ability to reconfigure, enhance and
optimize those designs throughout the entire product development life
cycle. This announcement represents the first time FPGA-based systems
developers can build and deploy on a Linux platform.
"MontaVista Software supports the most advanced semiconductor
architectures, such as the new Virtex-II Pro family," said Brian
Grega, vice president of business development, MontaVista Software.
"The combination of the reconfigurable Virtex-II Pro FPGA and
MontaVista Linux makes an ideal platform for a wide range of embedded
applications."
The integration of the Virtex-II Pro hardware platform with
embedded Linux yields a flexible design environment, in which
engineers can lower product costs and accelerate their time to market.
Consequently, developers will benefit from the advantages of open
source software to lower their product costs on a single,
company-standard hardware platform that can target many different
applications. This facilitates a quick start to design projects and
supports fixes, enhancements and performance optimization to hardware
or software throughout the entire product development process.
"Communications systems designers and developers of other embedded
computing applications increasingly request Linux support for their
next-generation products," said Erich Goetting, vice president and
general manager of the Advanced Products Division at Xilinx.
"MontaVista Software's experience in the embedded market and the
superior quality of its products make MontaVista Linux a logical
complement to our Virtex-II Pro family."
Reciprocal Partnering Programs Membership
Xilinx has joined the MontaVista Partnering program, which gives
users access to a world-class group of hardware and software providers
who have embraced MontaVista Linux. With a wide variety of partners
from which to choose, the program is dedicated to offering solutions
to customer challenges. MontaVista has also joined Xilinx's Alliance
program of industry partners, providing a full eco-system of support,
including EDA, IP cores, design service, reference design and embedded
solutions for the Virtex-II Pro.
About Virtex-II Pro
On a single programmable platform chip, the Virtex-II Pro Platform
FPGA integrates fully embedded systems components, hard and soft IP,
and millions of gates of customizable logic. Virtex-II Pro offers hard
IBM PowerPC 405 processor cores, custom IP generation, multi-gigabit
serial transceivers and up to 10 Mb of on-board RAM. This rich set of
features supports a wide range of applications by providing a very
high level of flexibility to system designers.
MontaVista Software was one of the first embedded software
companies to develop a Linux-based platform for the IBM PowerPC family
of processors beginning with the PowerPC 405GP. MontaVista Software
and IBM work very closely to ensure that all IBM PowerPC and PowerNP
processors will be supported by MontaVista Linux.
Availability
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1 will be available for
the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro platform in the fourth quarter of this year
from MontaVista Software and its worldwide distribution channels. It
is offered as a product subscription, providing customers with the
MontaVista Linux kernel, utilities, development tools, software
updates, access to the MontaVista Zone and full technical support.
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1 is open source, royalty-free
and built from 100 percent pure Linux sources.
Powerful Tools
Hardware and software engineers need powerful tools to develop,
boot and debug their system. MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1
provides broad tool support via a variety of open source tools
retargeted for embedded cross development, including the first
MontaVista development environment powered by KDevelop -- an
award-winning open source integrated development environment (IDE).
The product offers a Linux trace tool (including kernel performance
and execution analyzer) significantly updated by MontaVista Software
for PowerPC. Other valuable tools include the MontaVista Library
Optimizer Tool, MontaVista Target Configuration Tool, and scores of
other useful applications and utilities. Also included are embedded
versions of the ext3, ReiserFS and JFFS journaling file systems.
Xilinx provides the ISE FPGA design suite, IP generation tools,
enhanced GNU software compiler/debugger and the ChipScope Pro(TM)
hardware debugger -- part of a complete tool suite for all aspects of
hardware, software and systems engineering. A new powerful solution
for booting the system with MontaVista Linux uses System ACE, a Xilinx
companion chip external to the Virtex-II Pro FPGA, which allows the
flexible booting of a system without any ROM.
About MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1, one of the most widely
used embedded Linux development platforms, includes an impressive
array of cross-development tools for system and application code,
unparalleled processor and board support, native real-time performance
in Linux, and hundreds of deployable utilities, libraries, drivers and
other run-time components. Based on Linux kernel version 2.4.17,
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 2.1 targets 24 different
processors supporting 68 commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and reference
boards. With this release, MontaVista Software reinforces its claim to
having the broadest embedded hardware support in the industry.
MontaVista Linux provides native Linux real-time performance with the
MontaVista preemptible kernel and real-time scheduler. Last month, the
prestigious French publication "Electronique" named MontaVista(TM)
Linux® Professional Edition 2.1 the "Best Embedded Tool and
Development Solution for 2002." Earlier this year, this product was
also named "Best Embedded Linux Solution" at the Linux World and Expo
in New York.
About Xilinx Inc.
Xilinx Inc. is the worldwide leader of programmable logic
solutions. Additional information about Xilinx is available at
www.xilinx.com.
About MontaVista Software Inc.
MontaVista Software Inc. powers the embedded revolution by
providing open-source systems software solutions for embedded
developers. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system (RTOS)
pioneer James Ready, MontaVista Software's principal products include
MontaVista(TM) Linux® Professional Edition and MontaVista(TM)
Linux® Carrier Grade Edition. The Professional Edition is a
Linux-based embedded source and binary distribution, cross development
platform and a set of tool kits for x86/IA-32, PowerPC, StrongARM,
MIPS, SH, ARM, XScale, Xtensa and other microprocessor architectures.
The Carrier Grade Edition is a second-generation high availability
product that is an ideal Linux platform for telecommunications and
carrier-grade applications. MontaVista Software also provides several
complementary technology products addressing specific customer needs
such as the Java development environment, high availability
technology, powerful graphics toolkits and more. MontaVista offers
developers a family of products and services for embedded design and
development targeted for applications ranging from communications
infrastructure to consumer devices.
Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale,
Calif., MontaVista Software is a privately held company funded by
leading investors such as Alloy Ventures, US Venture Partners, RRE
Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co., IBM, Intel Capital, Panasonic and Sony
Corp. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit
http://www.mvista.com, email to info@mvista.com or call 408/328-9200.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. MontaVista is a
trademark of MontaVista Software Inc. All other names mentioned are
trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective
companies.
Contact:
MontaVista Software Inc.
Joe Samagond, 408/328-9234
(Director of Marketing and Corp Comm)
jsamagond@mvista.com
Bill Weinberg, 408/328-9213
(Director of Strategy/Evangelism)
bill@mvista.com
or
Pacifico Inc. (for MontaVista)
PR Strategy and Business Development
Patricia Colby, 408/293-8600 ext. 340
pcolby@pacifico.com
or
Xilinx Inc.
Ann Duft, 408/879-4726 (Public Relations)
ann.duft@xilinx.com
Jay Gould, 425/844-9905 (Product Marketing)
jay.gould@xilinx.com
