MontaVista Software to support Xilinx Virtex-II ProTM FPGA

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Patricia Colby writes: MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, and Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX), 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? 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? 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? Linux® Professional Edition and MontaVista? 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 Corporation. 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.

MontaVista contacts

Joe Samagond,Director of Marketing and Corp Comm, MontaVista Software Inc., Phone (408) 328-9234,E-mail: jsamagond@mvista.com

Patricia Colby, PR Strategy and Business Development, Pacifico Inc. (for MontaVista), Phone (408) 293-8600 ext. 340, E-mail: pcolby@pacifico.com

Bill Weinberg, Director of Strategy/Evangelism, MontaVista Software Inc., Phone: (408) 328-9213, E-mail: bill@mvista.com

Xilinx contacts

Ann Duft, Public Relations, Xilinx Inc., Phone:(408) 879-4726, ann.duft@xilinx.com

Jay Gould, Product Marketing, Xilinx Inc., Phone:(425) 844-9905,
jay.gould@xilinx.com

Category:

  • Linux