Since no one has posted todays news here it is.
Wind River Systems Announces Availability of I(2)O(TM) Real Time Operating System
Industry's First Available IRTOS Provides Significant Market Advantage in Developing I(2)O-Ready Products
ALAMEDA, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Wind River Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:WIND) today announced the availability of its IxWorks(TM) I(2)O
real time operating system (IRTOS). The announcement comes following the formal adoption of the I(2)O specification, Version 1.5, by the I(2)O
Special Interest Group (I(2)O SIG(TM)) in March 1997. Wind River's IxWorks, which is provided as part of the company's Tornado(TM) for I(2)O
development environment, is the industry's first IRTOS and the only one currently available.
David Larrimore, vice president of marketing at Wind River Systems noted, ``I(2)O will finally enable PCs to become enterprise-class machines. The
bandwidth and performance issues that have always plagued PC-based computing environments have been eliminated through the standardization of
intelligent I/O and the subsequent development of I(2)O products.''
I(2)O extends the PCI (peripheral component interface) effort to the software space. Just as the PCI specification provided a standard hardware bus
architecture for I/O, I(2)O now provides a standard software architecture for I/O. Companies implementing I(2)O include network server manufacturers;
network server peripheral product manufacturers; motherboard manufacturers; and ISVs (independent software vendors) such as developers of network
applications that run on the intelligent I/O processor.
``Wind River's IxWorks is playing a strategic role in bringing these I(2)O products, which are very software-intensive, to market,'' Larrimore continued.
``By utilizing our off-the-shelf IRTOS and Tornado for I(2)O tools, application developers can bring their products to market faster. The IRTOS also lets
them focus their energies on creating the value-add enhancements that will serve as the market differentiators for their products.''
Pauline Shulman, product marketing manager for Wind River's I(2)O products stated, ``Intelligent I/O processing has long been a capability of mainframe
machines. Now, with the availability of a standard I/O platform (IOP) and the rich software environment I(2)O provides, that same kind of benefit is
available for PC-based environments.''
In the traditional PC environment, the CPU is constantly bombarded by the asynchronous interrupts required to handle I/O processing. This leads to
severe CPU performance and bandwidth bottlenecks. With the I(2)O split driver model, application processing and I/O are handled as separate
functions, with I/O processing off-loaded to a separate processor, the IOP.
In order to implement intelligent I/O, a sophisticated operating system similar to the one running on a CPU, is required. For instance, the network
operating system which is resident on the CPU, such as Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) Windows NT(R), is a complex, multitasking environment. That same
kind of complex functionality, but in a smaller package, is required on the I/O side to provide a robust environment for multiple device drivers to safely
coexist and to handle I/O applications such as RAID. IxWorks provides that sophisticated, multitasking operating system for intelligent I/O processing.
``It's important that those companies wishing to implement I(2)O understand that this is a software specification. And, as is true of the 'companion' PCI
specification, I(2)O is a massive document,'' Shulman added. ``A company that tries to implement I(2)O compliance from scratch will have to devote a
lot of time and resources to the effort. Because Wind River has played a significant role in the I(2)O effort from the beginning, we are thoroughly familiar
with the spec and will update the IRTOS accordingly to reflect any changes. This effort alone will result in major resource, time and money savings for
those companies developing I(2)O-ready products.''
IxWorks and Tornado for I(2)O
IxWorks is a lightweight, scalable and resource-efficient real-time operating system based on Wind River's highly successful wind(R) kernel. IxWorks
provides a single plug-in framework for communicating with all I(2)O drivers. Designers no longer have to provide an interface directly to the network
operating system. They simply plug the appropriate information into the pre-designed I(2)O driver model and IxWorks translates it into I(2)O message
protocols.
Customized for demanding I/O applications, the Tornado for I(2)O development environment offers a complete, configurable package-complete with
API, operating system, guaranteed hardware integration, compilers, debuggers, shell, incremental loader for iterative testing, and access to
state-of-the-art development tools.
A license for IxWorks is shipped with every i960@ RD and RP processor sold by Intel (Nasdaq:INTC).
The I(2)O SIG
The I(2)O SIG is a working association of members committed to the design, promotion, maintenance, extension and certification of the intelligent I/O
driver architecture. The SIG is chartered with providing an extensible, abstract I/O architecture that is independent of both the specific hardware device
being controlled and the host operating system.
The I(2)O architecture is an operating system and hardware-independent specification that enhances the performance and reduces maintenance costs of
PC-based systems and network servers. The architecture greatly improves I/O throughput and overall system performance by relieving host resources,
such as the CPU, memory and system bus, of interrupt-intensive I/O tasks. The I(2)O architecture provides support for single processor, multiprocessor,
and clustered systems, providing better system scalability. It also provides an open, standards-based approach for I/O subsystems. This approach is
complementary to existing drivers and provides a framework for rapid development of next-generation intelligent I/O solutions. Version 1.5 of the
architecture supports peer-to-peer technology, which allows I/O devices to communicate directly, bypassing the host CPU and independent of the
network operating system.
Implementation of the I(2)O architecture is anticipated to provide a more efficient way to manage I/O transactions for digital video, audio and 3-D
graphics; complex database queries; and Web transaction applications.
Anyone know when this will hit revenue? |
