GNP Computers Receives Internet Telephony's 2001 Product of the Year Award.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

MONROVIA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 15, 2002

GNP Computers, a leading developer of system framework architecture for the embedded control and communications marketplace, received Internet Telephony's 2001 Product of the Year award for Continuant Cluster Suite, its applications development framework and operating environment for high-availability telecommunications applications.

Unveiled in June 2001, GNP's Continuant Cluster Suite was recognized as an innovative solution because of its ability to deliver significantly more than 99.999 percent availability in carrier-grade telecommunications platforms based on Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology. In addition, it provides a complete applications development environment that includes documentation, embedded intelligence and professional services for optimizing the application architecture, implementation and execution.

"The Product of the Year award is meant not only to honor the outstanding teams who developed and manufactured the products and services on our winning list, but also to educate our readers on the vast array of offerings in this market. Choosing the winners was a difficult process, and the editorial team spent many hours studying the applications we received from vendors, as well as looking through materials we collected on our own over the past year," said Internet Telephony's editorial director, Greg Galitzine.

Continuant Cluster Suite was developed for applications such as softswitches, gateways and controllers, intelligent voice response, wireless, Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other critical systems that require fewer than five minutes of downtime per year. Target customers include the traditional Network Equipment System Providers (NEPs) who are migrating to next generation products, and companies developing products in emerging new areas such as 3G wireless and optical, as well as other mission-critical environments requiring high availability for command and control systems.

"GNP's successful track record as an innovative solutions provider to the embedded control and communications markets led us to recognize an industry need for a high availability applications framework based on COTS (Commercial off-the-shelf) technology," said Roger Baar, Ph.D., president and CEO of GNP. "With Continuant Cluster Suite, we combined our Natural Clustering Technology, which offers inherent advantages over conventional approaches, into a development framework that facilitates the rapid implementation of new applications. It cuts critical weeks and months out of the time to market, yet it still provides a more robust and reliable system than those currently available. We are pleased to receive Internet Telephony's 2001 Product of the Year award as an acknowledgement of this innovation."

Internet Telephony annually recognizes, with this award, those companies who are creating next-generation telecommunications products and services. The publication, which covers the IP telephony industry, will feature the award recipients in its January 2002 issue. This is the second consecutive year that Internet Telephony has distinguished GNP with this award in the softswitch category.

About Continuant Cluster Suite

GNP's Continuant Cluster Suite addresses total system availability, which encompasses hardware, software and operations. It is comprised of three products for the complete development and deployment of continuously available applications on COTS platforms such as Sun/SPARC, Pentium/Linux, PowerPC/Linux and ARM/StrongARM/Linux. Continuant Cluster, which features GNP's patent-pending Natural Clustering Technology(TM) (NCT(TM)), insulates the application from underlying COTS elements and provides natural load balancing with virtually unlimited scalability. Continuant System Manager provides remote management of all compute nodes in a cluster, using a single system view, and automates routine System Administrator functions. Continuant Watchdog monitors the health of individual system elements and provides power control and out-of-band management of errant components. All products provide simultaneous support of heterogeneous processors and operating systems, which helps buffer the long-life communications equipment from the effects of short COTS product life cycles.

Continuant Cluster, Continuant System Manager and Continuant Watchdog deliver optimum performance when working together, but may also be used individually and integrated with complementary customer or third-party products.

About GNP Computers

GNP Computers, Inc. is a premier provider of complex systems manufacturing for the embedded control and communications marketplace. The company designs, manufactures and customizes open system platforms to meet the demanding requirements of its customers' programs, using Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology enhanced by system building blocks of its own design. GNP specializes in partnering with its customers to create OEM solutions tailored to their specific needs.

In addition to Continuant Cluster Suite, its continuously available multi-node applications framework, GNP's broad range of platform solutions include SPARC-, PowerPC- and Intel-based carrier-grade systems in CompactPCI(R) and other form factors. Its products are complemented by comprehensive services, ranging from conceptual design through deployment, that minimize cycle time at all stages of the product lifecycle, while achieving the highest levels of quality and customer satisfaction. ISO-9001 certified, GNP is privately held with headquarters in Monrovia, Calif. For more information on GNP Computers' products and services, visit the company web site at www.gnp.com.

(c) 2001 GNP Computers, Inc. GNP Computers is a trademark of GNP Computers. All other brand names and trademarks are properties of their respective holders.