Hitachi Embedded to Offer Next-Generation Search, Proven Database for Wind River Consumer Device Platforms.

Entier Embedded Data Manager to Ease Addition of Unique and Powerful Search Features and Management of Complex Digital Content for Linux, VxWorks Platforms

LAS VEGAS -- The Embedded Business Group of Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., (NYSE:HIT), today announced plans for the Hitachi Entier relational database management system (RDBMS), an application-optimized platform with unique, powerful local search, to support two consumer device platforms from Wind River (NASDAQ:WIND). The availability of Entier for both the Platform for Consumer Devices-Linux Edition (PCD-LE) and the Platform for Consumer Devices-VxWorks Edition (PCD-VE) will provide the widest population of developers to date the ability to directly incorporate advanced search functions that allow users to search in a more natural manner, while simultaneously reducing the amount of required application code by a factor of up to 20-fold.

"Consumers today demand cutting-edge devices that do more - and store more digital content data as a result," said Steven King, vice president, marketing and sales, Hitachi Embedded Business Group. "The Entier data manager and Wind River's consumer development platforms complement each other, blending Wind River's 20-plus years of embedded experience with the advanced, application-optimized search and data management abilities of Hitachi Entier. By combining them, we are streamlining the process for developers to incorporate functionality that will allow users to store, manage and find the content they want, when they want it."

For Wind River, the search for new technologies to offer for its platform is always on. "Hitachi Entier will augment Wind River's Platform for Consumer Devices by incorporating at its core advanced data management and search technologies," said John Bruggeman, chief marketing officer, Wind River. "Entier's singular ability to provide a reliable, application-optimized data manager for consumer devices made it a clear choice to add to our stable of software provider partners. Our complimentary technologies provide developers of consumer devices an easy, efficient way to add sophisticated local search functionality to their products."

The Entier embedded database management system is based on the technology that makes Hitachi's HiRDB one of the top-selling RDBMS products in Japan. Entier is designed for small footprint consumer devices that require a fast, powerful, standards-based database manager. While a typical RDBMS provides simple search of data, Entier offers two powerful application-optimized search technologies that make a device easier to use, more responsive, while at the same time dramatically reducing the amount of code an embedded application developer needs to write.

The first of these application optimizations provides the ability to search multidimensional, or "3D," data. This means that an Entier-enabled device can conduct a spatial, or multidimensional, search using the SQL language. By searching a variety of qualitative tags defined by the consumer, Entier can search for content that is "more like this," for example, finding music of a certain tempo or a movie not too scary for young children. Secondly, Entier offers incremental text search, which progressively executes the search, narrowing down the results with each keystroke. This is useful for any application that involves searching for entries by name, such as song or movie titles.

The Wind River PCD provides developers with a device software optimization (DSO) solution that supports the two leading operating systems for device development, VxWorks and Linux, each with a separate edition of the platform. Both versions offer companies a fast-boot, small-footprint run-time environment ideal for memory-constrained devices. The platform is targeted for digital video, mobile handheld, digital imaging and broadband access devices, and offers multiple processor support and operating system flexibility, allowing developers to standardize on a single, comprehensive development suite and migrate easily from project to project.

Availability

The Hitachi Entier data management solution for PCD-LE will be available in Q1 2007. The PCD-VE version is planned for Q2 2007.

About Hitachi

The Hitachi America, Ltd., Embedded Business Group, markets Entier, a sophisticated, lightweight, application-optimized data manager for consumer, commercial and mobile devices. It enables the rapid delivery of innovative services on any platform, allowing developers to focus on tangible end-user benefits rather than invisible infrastructure. Entier is the first to combine a flexible runtime RDBMS and reliable file system with application-optimized spatial and incremental text search technology. Built on a foundation of total data reliability, Entier incorporates decades of database development expertise and is backed by Hitachi's worldwide enterprise-class support.

Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., markets and manufactures a broad range of electronics, computer systems and products, and consumer electronics, and provides industrial equipment and services throughout North America. For more information, visit www.hitachi.us.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT) (TOKYO:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at www.hitachi.com.