WIND--Wind River, Intel Expand Relationship to Create New Center of Excellence for I/O and Network Processors Based on Intel XScale and StrongARM Microarchitectures
Agreement Reduces Developer Time-to-Market by Ensuring Optimized Software Available for Intel Hardware Faster
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 2000-- Wind River Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:WIND - news) today announced that it has created a new ``Center of Excellence'' with Intel Corporation to support data storage, networking and communications silicon components based on the Intel® XScale(TM) and StrongARM* microarchitectures. The Center of Excellence helps ensure that the latest Wind River products are optimized to fully leverage the new Intel® IOP310 I/O Processor Chipset with the Intel XScale microarchitecture within weeks of hardware first becoming available. (See related Intel announcement, New Intel® I/O Chipset Triples Speed of Handling Data in Internet Infrastructure, Sept. 27, 2000)
The agreement, which includes the Tornado® development platform and VxWorks® real-time operating system (RTOS), expands Wind River's already successful collaboration with Intel through the Center of Excellence initiative for the Intel® Architecture (see related Intel announcement, Wind River Systems, Intel Corporation Advance State-of-the-Art Embedded Application Development, Sept. 28, 1999). Through the new Intel XScale and StrongARM Center of Excellence, Intel and Wind River will target a variety of Internet-access device, Internet infrastructure and intelligent networking market segments. The initiative affirms Wind River's commitment to help customers reduce time-to-market by providing optimized software for new processors as quickly as possible.
``By working intimately with software and tools vendors such as Wind River, we can deliver best-of-class solutions designed with hardware and software integration in mind,'' said Wendy Vittori, general manager of Intel's I/O Products Division. ``And because of the value chain Wind River offers developers, Intel customers will be able to utilize Tornado development tools to incorporate the latest in innovative software into their products. The end result for customers is shorter development cycles while preserving their technology investments.''
``By working closely with Intel to tailor Tornado and VxWorks for the Intel IOP310 I/O Processor Chipset, we are able to provide customers with software that is pre-integrated with hardware virtually out of the box,'' said John Fogelin, general manager of the Wind River Platforms business unit. ``This falls directly in line with our strategy to work with leading embedded semiconductor vendors to deliver technology optimized for specific microprocessors. Center of Excellence engineers are already tailoring upcoming versions of Wind River Internet access device and networking infrastructure technologies for these new processors.''
Intel and Wind River have also renewed the original Intel Architecture Center of Excellence agreement, which will continue to facilitate porting, optimization and distribution of Wind River's Tornado development platform across the Intel Celeron(TM) and Pentium® processor families.
The Center of Excellence for the XScale and StrongARM architectures exemplifies Intel and Wind River's commitment to the program and ensures that both companies have a unified, strategic approach for their customers. A joint Wind River / Intel steering committee helps ensure that product road maps will provide a long-term growth path, thereby allowing customers to preserve current and future investments in Intel processors and Tornado / VxWorks.
An additional benefit of the Center of Excellence model is the creation of a team of engineers within each organization dedicated to implementation and deployment of new products. This coordination will ensure that when new microprocessors based on the new Intel XScale microarchitecture are introduced, compatible application development software will be ready for use by developers early in the processor life cycle.
Building on Intel StrongARM technology, the Intel XScale microarchitecture is well equipped for Internet infrastructure products such as network and I/O processors, where performance is essential to processing large amounts of data quickly. Wind River has given the Intel StrongARM architecture strong support in the past, including Tornado availability for the Intel StrongARM SA1100 and SA1110 processors.
Availability
The first new product from the Center of Excellence will be a complete Tornado II release for StrongARM and XScale, which will include support for the Intel IOP310 chipset with Intel XScale microarchitecture on the Cyclone IQ80310 development board. Initial versions of this product will begin beta testing in late October of 2000, with the first customer release following in spring of 2001. The Center of Excellence will also provide Tornado 3 / VxWorks AE support for the Intel XScale microarchitecture.
About Wind River Systems, Inc.
Wind River, www.windriver.com, is a worldwide leader in embedded software. Wind River provides software development tools, real-time operating systems, and advanced connectivity for use in products throughout the Internet, telecommunications and data communications, digital imaging, digital consumer electronics, networking, medical, computer peripherals, automotive, industrial automation and control, and aerospace/defense markets. Wind River is how smart things think. Founded in 1983, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations in sixteen countries worldwide.
Note to Editors: Wind River Systems, the Wind River Systems logo, Tornado, and VxWorks are registered trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc. Intel and Intel XScale are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corp. StrongARM is a registered trademark of Intel Corp. Other names are registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective companies or organizations. |
