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Increased reliability to reduce service outages, flexibility from open standards key in selection of LynuxWorks' flagship RTOS

SAN JOSÉ, Calif., March 5, 2007—LynuxWorks™, Inc., a world leader in the embedded software market, today announced that NorthWestern Energy, one of the largest providers of electricity and natural gas in the upper midwest and northwest has chosen LynxOS® for its Acceleration Trend Relay (ATR), a system of devices designed to automatically monitor the utility's electricity transmission system and take actions to maintain system stability. NorthWestern Energy selected the LynxOS real-time operating system (RTOS) because it met its stringent reliability requirements and for its support for open standards like POSIX®.

While other electricity providers rely on a widespread network of devices that require human monitoring and intervention in case of system instability, NorthWestern Energy's ATR system is always on, monitoring the effects of electrical events on four coal-fired generators in its system. If these effects exceed the limits that have been programmed into the ATR, it then trips breakers to protect the system from instability. The hard real-time environment built into LynxOS ensures that the ATR system will give fast, predictable responses during a set period of time should the fault parameters be exceeded, helping maintain the transmission system without interruption.

"When NorthWestern Energy set out to develop the ATR system, we had two key requirements for an RTOS: It had to be highly reliable, and it had to support open standards. LynxOS clearly met those requirements," said Steve Shannon, senior engineer, NorthWestern Energy. "Our experience with LynxOS has proven its high reliability, and its ability to maintain the integrity of our transmission system even in the most demanding situations helps ensure that our customers do not experience outages. Our ATR system is designed for long-term use, and LynuxWorks' continued adherence to open standard APIs like POSIX helps ensure that we can maintain the system for the long haul."

LynxOS is the leading POSIX conformant embedded operating system on the market—the first choice of customers who cannot afford downtime. LynxOS forms the embedded core of a wide array of systems, from postal mail sorting solutions to air traffic control systems, and from office printers and copiers to commercial airliners. As the only hard-real time technology with broad conformance to open and de facto standards such as Linux®, POSIX and UNIX®, LynxOS has the power to take full advantage of current hardware designs, and offers broad re-use of available software applications. LynxOS also features a fully integrated Eclipse-based IDE supporting the ubiquitous GNU toolchain to provide a streamlined development and execution environment and offers a unique Linux Application Interface (ABI) for running Linux applications in high-reliability systems.

"LynxOS is the perfect solution for companies like NorthWestern Energy, whose business depends on maintaining uninterrupted electricity transmission," said Sonia Leal, senior project manager, LynuxWorks. "NorthWestern Energy can take advantage of the pedigree of an operating system that has been used in very-high-reliability and safety-critical systems, while still maintaining open standards-based interfaces."

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. 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	Dave Reddy Weber Shandwick USA +1 650-868-4659	Peter van der Sluijs Neesham Public Relations Europe +44 1442-879222
Hamid Mirab Managing Director EMEA LynuxWorks Ltd. United Kingdom +44 208-906-9506	Elvia Soltero Weber Shandwick USA +1 408-685-0614