PALM SPRINGS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1999--
Charter Membership in Intel's IXA Developer's Forum, RTOS on
Networking Chip Solidifies Leadership in Networking for
Embedded Systems
Wind River Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIND), the leader in embedded
development software and services for the post-PC era, announced today
that it is the first software vendor to support the newly announced
Internet Exchange-Processor(a), the IXP1200(a) from Level One
Communications, Inc. (an Intel company).
Original equipment manufacturers will now be able to use Wind
River's world-class Tornado(TM) embedded development platform and
VxWorks(R) real-time operating system (RTOS) to build IXP1200-based
Internet equipment, resulting in faster time to market than
traditional solutions.
In addition to being the sole original RTOS for the IXP-1200,
Wind River will become one of the charter partners in Intel's newly
announced Internet Exchange Architect (IXA) Developers Forum(a), a
joint engineering and marketing program to support developers using
IXP1200 and related networking products such as Wind River's operating
system, development tools and embedded protocols.
Wind River also recently formed a networking-focused business
unit; began shipping Tornado for Managed Switches, a complete software
solution for developing layer 2 and layer 3 switches; and acquired
RouterWare, Inc., a leading supplier of portable network protocol
source code.
Support of Intel's networking initiatives, along with these other
projects solidifies Wind River's position as the leading provider of
embedded software and tools for the Internet infrastructure equipment
market.
Until now, Internet infrastructure equipment was developed with
proprietary, in-house, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)
solutions. However, high non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs and
protracted product development cycles associated with ASICs make these
implementations impractical and undesirable for the high volume,
rapidly evolving products that comprise the Internet infrastructure.
Having access to Level One's IXP1200 in concert with Wind River's
Tornado development platform and VxWorks RTOS will enable product
developers to meet demanding market delivery dates while also building
product software that takes full advantage of Intel's new
microprocessor.
Wind River support for IXP1200 also allows developers to access a
premier platform for advanced networking products with the widest
value chain of supporting partners and technologies in the industry.
"The key issues in networking are dealing with the phenomenal
complexity of protocols while the market is undergoing rapid
evolution," said David Fraser, vice president and general manager of
Wind River's Networks business unit.
"Without an integrated solution of hardware and software, OEMs
find it hard to keep up. With Intel, Level One and Wind River working
together on networking solutions, developers have the building blocks
and tools to deliver cutting edge data networking and telecom
equipment products to market quickly.
"In addition, developers get a proven reliable operating system,
increased productivity with our tools, and a phenomenal value chain of
integrated protocols and applications available for the industry's
premier platform."
"Intel and Level One are highly committed to the networking
market and we are pleased and excited that Wind River has completed
the port of its VxWorks RTOS to the IXP1200," said Bob Pepper, vice
president and general manager of Level One Communications, an Intel
company.
"This marriage of our network processor with Wind River software
provides a robust development environment as an off-the-shelf solution
that is unsurpassed in quality."
"The combination of Wind River's VxWorks RTOS and the Intel
IXP-1200 has enabled us to rapidly develop a next-generation access
platform that fully addresses the needs of our service provider
customer base," said Joe Sarkar, director of software development for
Broadband Access Systems, which has been using a beta version of the
IXP-1200 running the VxWorks RTOS.
"Furthermore, the Tornado tools allowed our engineers to
simultaneously connect to and debug several target processors, which
drastically reduced our time to market and simplified our software
development process."
John Freeman, principal analyst for enterprise infrastructure
service at the research firm Current Analysis noted that "two
revolutionary shifts we are now beginning to see are: 1) a movement
toward a more open development environment in the networking equipment
industry based on a new generation of packet processors; 2) the
emergence of a wide variety of post-PC info-appliances.
"Wind River is uniquely positioned to capitalize on both these
trends and leverage the synergies between them, enabling the company
to be a critical foundation in the growth of ubiquitous networking in
the mass market."
IXP1200
The Level One IXP1200 network processor, the primary component of
Intel's new initiative in the network processor market, is geared
towards application-specific embedded designs for products used in the
Internet infrastructure such as high-speed network switches and other
network access products.
The IXP1200 network processor is comprised of a StrongARM(a)
(SA-1) Core with a clock frequency of 166 MHz; six packet-processing
microengines; and interfaces to external SDRAM, SRAM, a PCI bus, and a
FIFO bus. Each of the six microengines can be programmed to perform
various operations to network traffic at wirespeed. The VxWorks RTOS
has been ported to the StrongArm core processor. This processor is
used to control and manage the operations of the six microengines.
The integration of the six packet-processing microengines and the
control and management processor give the IXP1200 an unparalleled
advantage in terms of speed, cost, and power consumption.
IXA Developer's Forum
The Internet Exchange Architecture (IXA) Developer's Forum is an
Intel specification open to the industry for common APIs, buses, and
library functions. The IXA Developer's Forum was formed to establish a
strong, open design community around the IXA.
Specifically, the forum is charged with providing solutions that
allow faster time to market, higher performance, and reduced
development costs. As embedded technology becomes more pervasive,
connectivity to the Internet and other devices is becoming crucial. |
