Datalight FlashFX Flash Management Software is Chosen by OSE for Integration in OSE RTOS.

Business Editors & Technology Writers

BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 2001

Datalight today announced it has licensed its FlashFX(R) flash memory management component to OSE, Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), a subsidiary of Enea Group (SAXESS: ENEA), for integration into OSE's real-time operating system, OSE RTOS.

OSE RTOS is an embedded fault-tolerant operating system developed to support a wide range of applications that require a high degree of availability and reliability, such as telecommunications, data communications, automotive, and medical instrumentation. The integration of FlashFX allows OSE to focus on its customer's requirements for the highest level of fault tolerance and error correction for their embedded devices, while FlashFX provides a reliable, efficient solution to managing flash media.

"The demand for full-featured, reliable management software for flash media is something we see growing rapidly in embedded designs. It is simply not cost effective for our customers to attempt to develop this support themselves," said Bob Monkman, Director, Product Marketing for OSE Systems. "Within OSE Systems, we had to decide how best to meet this market demand, and it was clearly best for us to focus on our core competency of ultra-reliable, distributed computing platforms. Since Datalight is a leader in providing a best-in-class flash media management solution in FlashFX, with the widest device support we could find, it was a simple decision to collaborate with Datalight on delivering the best solution to our customers."

OSE acknowledges customer demand for RTOS support of flash memory

The need for reliable, low-power, low-cost, nonvolatile storage has become increasingly important as the embedded computing and mobile application markets have grown, and has largely been satisfied by flash memory devices. The volume of OSE customers using flash memory took a significant upturn, prompting OSE to increase the functionality of their RTOS to support flash devices. Because OSE customers participate in highly competitive markets where time-to-market is a key constraint, and flash devices generally require complex programming which can be very time intensive to develop in house, OSE turned to the flash management experts at Datalight.

Although there are several flash management solutions on the market today, none have the reliable, robust flash memory and file management capabilities offered by FlashFX.

Datalight's patented technology is a perfect fit

FlashFX has two patented technologies, "bad block management" (BBM) and "variable block format" (VBF), which clearly set it apart from the competition. BBM maps bad blocks dynamically and throughout the life of the product without the use of special hardware, allowing applications to exploit faster erase-write memory management capability). VBF contains wear-leveling which contributes to a longer life cycle of a product, and write-interruption protection to provide superior error correction. It also performs garbage collection resulting in tighter packing of memory, saving valuable hardware space.

"As the fastest growing company who is leading the competition in the fault-tolerant RTOS market, OSE is an important new partner, joining a number of silicon vendors, operating system suppliers as well as embedded hardware and software companies who are leaders in their fields," said Roy Sherrill, CEO of Datalight. "Our company focus is on delivering high quality software components which help engineers efficiently use their resources and add value to their products."

About Datalight

Established in 1983, Datalight provides high-quality, cost-effective embedded system software components that help its OEM customers develop products and bring them to market quickly. Datalight's operating systems and development tools help to create applications used on a daily basis such as pay phones, credit card terminals, medical electronics instruments, personal digital assistants, bar-code readers, global positioning systems, and smart cellular phones. Datalight is a privately held corporation located in Bothell, Wash. More information is available on Datalight's website www.datalight.com.