LynuxWorks Celebrates 15 Years of Leadership and Success in Embedded Software and Conveys its Vision for the Future of the Industry at First Annual "Vision Summit"

Company executives identify the exponential growth of Linux®, increased concerns over reliability and the need for greatly enhanced security as the major forces affecting embedded software developers

SAN JOSÉ, Calif., Sept. 9, 2003—Celebrating 15 years as a leader in the embedded software industry, LynuxWorks™ today hosted its first annual "Vision Summit" during which it outlined the emerging technologies, market trends and customer needs that will shape and impact the embedded industry's future. LynuxWorks described its technology strategies and product roadmap to seize the massive potential of embedded Linux and highlighted major concerns over security and product reliability as two factors embedded developers must address.

City of San José renames company's street "Embedded Way"

During the half-day Vision Summit, Dr. Inder Singh, CEO and chairman of LynuxWorks, along with other senior company executives, made the following market assessments and predictions for the embedded software industry:

Embedded Linux an "unstoppable force"

Dr. Singh referred to embedded Linux as an "unstoppable force" and predicted that "Linux will emerge as the only truly open, standard multi-vendor platform as the market shifts toward 'off the shelf' embedded applications as opposed to those built from scratch."

LynuxWorks conducted a live demonstration of its latest embedded Linux operating system (OS), BlueCat® Linux 5.0, the first product of its kind to be based on the new Linux 2.6 kernel. BlueCat Linux 5.0 represents a leading source of stable, commercial-grade embedded Linux technology that provides the flexibility and cost benefits of open-source software. The extensive test suite development, built on 15 years of continuous improvements, that LynuxWorks uses on its LynxOS® hard real-time operating system (RTOS) has now been ported to BlueCat 5.0 to ensure a robust OS. This enabled the company to bring the product to the beta-test stage well ahead of the rest of the embedded industry. LynuxWorks demonstrated the real-time performance of the Linux 2.6 kernel versus the latest 2.4.18 kernel and it own LynxOS RTOS. Worst-case response times for the 2.6 kernel were 4.5 milliseconds (ms) versus 159 ms for the 2.4.18 kernel and 75 microseconds for the LynxOS RTOS after 2.2 million samples on a system with a heavy load.

As embedded apps go "mission critical," reliability and security move to forefront

More new kinds of embedded products are being developed, and increasingly, these products are being called upon to perform "mission critical" tasks—for instance, in medical instruments, financial and security systems, telematics, avionics, and even the military's networked battlefield. In these instances, downtime is impermissible and often lives are at stake. As a result, reliability and security must become issues of paramount importance to embedded software developers. A highly secure OS must provide assurance that security policies meet several stringent requirements, as defined by the Common Criteria, an international standard that creates common methodologies to define and certify security.

There are seven Evaluated Assurance Levels (EAL)s that rank from least secure (EAL 1) to most secure (EAL 7). While there is no OS available today at EAL 7, LynuxWorks LynxOS-178 can be certified to EAL 4 and is based on software developed under stringent processes that meet the standards for safety-critical systems.

No other embedded OS provider has achieved this level of security certification and LynuxWorks intends to build upon this significant head start to become the first company in its industry to develop an OS that will be certified to EAL 7. In its presentation today, the company outlined its roadmap for this achievement, which includes a technology innovation called a "partitioning kernel" that will allow this goal to become a reality.

Long-time strategy leads to continued success

As we mark this important milestone in our company's history, it is clear that our success can in part be attributed to our unique product strategy," said Dr. Inder Singh, chairman and CEO of LynuxWorks. "LynuxWorks is the only company to offer both royalty-free Linux embedded operating systems via our BlueCat Linux family along with robust, hard real-time proprietary solutions with our LynxOS family. These products are all fully compatible with one another so a customer can easily grow from one to the next, as their needs evolve. No other company offers this degree of product choice and compatibility, which continues to be a powerful formula for our growth and market leadership."

City of San José renames company's street to "Embedded Way"

The company's 15-year anniversary was also noted by the City of San José, where LynuxWorks is headquartered. During an informal ceremony with city officials, the street name was changed from Branham Lane East to Embedded Way.

About LynuxWorks

LynuxWorks is a world leader in the embedded software market, providing operating systems, software development products and consulting services for the world's most successful communications, aerospace/defense, and consumer products companies. Established in 1988, the company is a technology leader in the real-time operating systems (RTOS) industry, and a founding member of the Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC). LynuxWorks' headquarters are located in San José, California.

LynuxWorks is a trademark and LynxOS and BlueCat are registered trademarks of LynuxWorks, Inc. Other brand or product names are registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective holders. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

LynuxWorks press contacts

Kirsten Long Director, Marketing Communications LynuxWorks, Inc. USA +1 408-979-4404	Barbara Stewart Patterson & Associates USA 480-488-6909
Hamid Mirab Managing Director EMEA LynuxWorks Ltd. United Kingdom +44 208-906-9506	Peter van der Sluijs Neesham Public Relations Europe +44 1442-879222