Atmel and Lineo Form Partnership to Develop Turnkey Voice-over-IP Products; Ethernet IP Phone Will Be Based on the Atmel AT75C220 Development Board and Lineo Embedix.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 2002

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:ATML) and Lineo(R) Inc. announced today the establishment of a partnership to develop and market turnkey products for Voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications. These products will enable OEMs to rapidly develop end-user products such as IP phones based on the combination of Atmel's AT75C Smart Internet Appliance Processor (SIAP(TM)) hardware and the Lineo Embedix(R) Linux(R) operating system and application software modules.

Atmel contributes to this partnership its expertise in designing and manufacturing single-chip solutions for Internet Appliances. Its AT75C family is based on an embedded ARM7TDMI(TM) microcontroller core with on-chip DSP, memory, Ethernet MAC and peripherals. It combines high performance with low power consumption and attractive unit price.

Lineo will complement Atmel's hardware solution with a dedicated port of Embedix Plus RG for voice solutions, its Linux-based operating system, and ARM-based application software modules. Lineo Embedix conforms to open systems and simplifies the development of the end-user product while reducing time-to-market. Embedix Plus RG for voice solutions will give developers a reliable and robust embedded operating system in a market-ready solution that has been customized for VoIP applications. The software stack is fully based on the PacketCable Multimedia Terminal Adapter1.0 specification and supports teleconferencing, voice over IP, ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) and other media, bridging, bandwidth management, quality of service, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), RSVP (ReSerVation Protocol), RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) and other advanced protocols.

The first product to be developed under this partnership is an Ethernet IP phone based on Atmel's AT75C220 SIAP-Ethernet IC. This product, soon to be released, will incorporate Lineo Embedix based on uClinux(TM) V2.4 and a dedicated port of the SIP VoIP stack, together with DSP vocoders and telephony software from Atmel. It will be marketed as a reference design running on the AT72C220 Development Board. In addition to the core software capabilities of this Internet telephony solution, Lineo offers not only software support and development services but also enhanced Internet telephony and residential gateway functionality with the implementation and integration of additional stack components specific to an OEM's requirements.

Eric Amouyal, Atmel's marketing director for Internet Appliances, welcomed the total solution that will result from this partnership: "Our aim is to provide a turnkey package that minimizes the development effort required by system designers. The combination of Atmel hardware and Lineo software enables them to rapidly customize the device according to their market requirements. It reduces risk and shortens time-to-market."

Matt Harris, Lineo CEO, went on to say, "Lineo is focused on providing its hardware partners with the industry's most complete Linux-based, vertical-specific software stacks. Lineo Embedix Plus RG for voice solutions combined with the customized AT72C220 Development Board provides a market-ready development solution for VoIP products such as Ethernet IP phones."

Atmel Corporation

Founded in 1984, Atmel Corporation is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with principal manufacturing facilities in Colorado Springs, Colo.,; Grenoble, Nantes and Rousset, France; Heilbronn, Germany; Irving, Texas; and North Tyneside, England. Atmel designs, manufactures and markets on a worldwide basis advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory, and RF semiconductors. Atmel is also a leading provider of system-level integration semiconductor solutions using advanced CMOS, BiCMOS, and SiGe process technologies.

Further details can be obtained from Atmel's Web site at www.atmel.com.

Lineo Inc.

Lineo(R), Inc. provides embedded systems and real-time solutions covering the full spectrum of embedded development, including operating system software, host development environments and professional services. Lineo distributes solutions allowing OEMs to create smart embedded devices and systems while helping OEMs to reduce system requirements, per-unit costs and time-to-market. Lineo's key product lines include: Embedix(R) SDK (a fully featured and integrated embedded developer tool chain), Embedix (embedded Linux system software for MMU-less and MMU-full processors), Embedix BridgeWorks(TM) (operating systems and tools for multiprocessor device support and legacy code migration) and RTXC(TM) Quadros(TM) (a highly configurable microprocessor and DSP real-time operating system).

Contact Lineo at http://www.lineo.com, via e-mail to [e-mail] or by calling 801/426-5001.

Information

For more information on Atmel's AT75C family, go to http://www.atmel.com/atmel/products/prod33.htm. Requests for literature may be sent via email to [e-mail] or by visiting Atmel's website at www.atmel.com.

Note to Editors: Atmel, the Atmel logo and combinations thereof and others contained herein, and SIAP, are trademarks of Atmel Corporation. Lineo, Embedix, BridgeWorks, Quadros and uClinux are registered trademarks and trademarks of Lineo Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. ARM and ARM7TDMI are registered trademarks and trademarks of ARM Ltd. Other terms and product names in this document may be trademarks of others.