Pigeon Point Systems Announces Industry's First Management Components for Advanced Mezzanine Cards.

CHICAGO -- Pigeon Point Systems(TM) announced today, at the SUPERCOMM 2004 Conference, the industry's first management support for Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AdvancedMCs) and their AdvancedTCA carrier boards, within the IPM Sentry(TM) product family. AdvancedMC is a hot-swappable mezzanine architecture developed by PICMG(R) from the ground up for the telecom industry, complementing AdvancedTCA. The IPM Sentry AdvancedMC support is layered on the 2nd generation IPM Sentry Board Management Reference design, BMR-AVR, which uses Atmel AVR micro controllers. The AdvancedMC support includes hardware and software that addresses both: 1) the additional responsibilities of the IPM Controller on an AdvancedMC (AMC) carrier board, and 2) the Module Management Controller (MMC) on the hot swappable AMC, itself. IPM Sentry is a family of hardware and software products that enable cost-effective, interoperable management of open modular platforms based on the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI). Using IPM Sentry components, developers of AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC and CompactPCI products can quickly and cost-effectively incorporate compliant, competitive and interoperability tested management subsystems.

"Our IPM Sentry BMR reference designs already provide the quickest way to develop management subsystems of AdvancedTCA boards, with at least 25 boards from a broad range of companies already using this approach," said Mark Overgaard, President of Pigeon Point Systems. "Our new AdvancedMC support brings the same benefits to developers of AdvancedMC carrier boards and mezzanine cards. We take advantage of our deep involvement in the management aspects of the AMC.x and AdvancedTCA specifications to deliver an off-the-shelf solution that is specification-compliant and interoperable, with excellent documentation and outstanding support."

Further accelerating time to market, the AMC add-on to the IPM Sentry Board Management Starter Kit provides a bench top board that can emulate a carrier IPM Controller and two MMCs. Combined with the bench top hardware in the base Starter Kit, this board allows immediate hands-on interaction with compliant AMC management functionality, even before custom hardware exists. When that custom hardware is available, the bench top hardware can be used as a reference during the integration process. The AMC add-on also includes comprehensive hardware and software technical specifications and schematics. Furthermore, Pigeon Point Systems provides a thorough technical review of customer-created AMC and AMC carrier designs based on those schematics.

"Our experience with the IPM Sentry BMR-AVR and the preceding BMR-C5470 IPM Controller reference designs on our AdvancedTCA product line has been excellent. The addition of AMC support makes the benefits of the IPM Sentry product line compelling," said Brian Rich, director of engineering, Motorola Computer Group. "Working with Pigeon Point Systems for AdvancedTCA shelf management allowed us to focus our efforts at a higher level: delivering the overall breakthrough represented by our pre-integrated and validated AdvancedTCA based Application-Enabling Platforms."

For more detail on the IPM Sentry products, visit www.pigeonpoint.com.

About Pigeon Point Systems

Pigeon Point Systems (PPS) provides products and services that enable cost-effective management of standards-based platforms--including AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC (AMC), CompactTCA and CompactPCI--and is a leader in the definition of those platforms. With its IPM Sentry shelf management products, PPS offers the first shelf management building blocks that compatibly support AdvancedTCA and CompactPCI, with similar support for CompactTCA to come. The IPM Sentry board management products--also the first off-the-shelf offerings in the industry--enable compact, cost-effective management subsystems for boards and other FRUs, including AMC carriers and AMCs. PPS chairs the Software Interoperability subcommittee, is a leader in the AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC and CompactTCA subcommittees and is active in many other technical subcommittees of PICMG. For more information about PPS, visit their web site at www.pigeonpoint.com or call their headquarters at 831-438-1565.

Note to Editors

Pigeon Point Systems, Hot Swap Kit and IPM Sentry are trademarks of Pigeon Point Systems. PICMG, CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, CompactTCA and AdvancedMC are trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (the first three registered trademarks). Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.