Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Performs Successful Investigation of LynuxWorks' LynxSecure for Real-Time Applications

Laboratory's performance trials assess use of the LynxSecure separation kernel in mission-critical applications

SAN JOSÉ, Calif., March 22, 2010—LynuxWorks™, Inc., a world leader in the embedded software market, today announced that its LynxSecure separation kernel was independently tested with a series of performance tests at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), to help assess the use of separation kernels for future real-time, mission-critical systems.

JHU/APL ran benchmarks on LynxSecure, using a Linux operating system as the guest. The results showed good performance and stability for LynxSecure with a range of common benchmarks, including LMbench and the iPerf networking suite. The tests also demonstrated the effectiveness of LynxSecure's multi-core performance. When used with multi-core processors, LynxSecure can run multiple operating systems and applications on each core, or bind applications and operating systems to specific cores offering the utmost flexibility in system design and performance utilization.

"During our benchmark tests, we analyzed processor utilization in increasingly more complex conditions using larger loading levels," said Ed Jacques, Computer Systems Engineer at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "Even at high loading levels, we found that the system performance remained strong. Processor utilization was close to what was observed when running the same environment on the same hardware without LynxSecure."

JHU/APL also investigated the robustness of the LynxSecure separation kernel, which supports a unified processing environment with multiple security domains. The suite of tests included a multifaceted application environment, which helped to demonstrate that LynxSecure running on Intel VT-x enabled hardware can support such complex environments with negligible impact on overall performance.

LynxSecure is a separation kernel and embedded hypervisor designed to be used in secure real-time environments to the highest levels of security. The small separation kernel part of LynxSecure maintains the real-time determinism and security separation including the definition of secure information flow policies between applications running on a single piece of embedded hardware.

"The JHU/APL benchmark tests have independently confirmed what we have known all along, which is that the LynxSecure separation kernel has the performance required to support multiple security domains on a single piece of hardware," said Robert Day, vice president of marketing at LynuxWorks.

About The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is a not-for-profit university-affiliated center for engineering, research and development that meets critical national challenges through the innovative application of science and technology. JHUAPL has a staff of more than 3,000 engineers and scientists and is located north of Washington, D.C.

About LynuxWorks

LynuxWorks, a world leader in the embedded software market, is committed to providing open and reliable real-time operating systems (RTOS) and software tools to embedded developers. The company's LynxOS family of operating systems offers open standards with the highest level of safety and security features, enabling many mission-critical systems in defense, avionics and other industries. Additionally, LynuxWorks' BlueCat Linux provides the features and support of embedded Linux for companies wanting to use open source technology for their embedded applications. The Eclipse-based Luminosity IDE gives a powerful and consistent development system across all LynuxWorks operating systems. Since it was established in 1988, LynuxWorks has created technology that has been successfully deployed in thousands of designs and millions of products made by leading communications, avionics, aerospace/defense, and consumer electronics companies. 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. Intel and Intel Core are registered trademarks of the Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

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