Power.org Unveils Next Step in Power Architecture Roadmap, Launches Unified Brand Identity; Power Architecture Technology Momentum Builds with Merged Architecture, New Platform Specification and Five New Power.org Members.

ORLANDO, Fla. & SAN FRANCISCO -- Power.org(TM), the open collaborative organization that enables, develops and promotes Power Architecture(TM) technology, today unveiled several initiatives designed to accelerate the development of innovative, high-performance, power-efficient devices and applications. These initiatives include an improved, merged instruction set architecture, a new platform architecture specification to help guide future development and a streamlined brand identity.

Combined with the addition of five new Power.org members, these achievements represent major milestones for the Power.org community and underscore the growing momentum behind Power Architecture technology in the marketplace.

Today's Power.org announcements were made at the annual Freescale Technology Forum in Orlando and at the 43rd annual Design Automation Conference (DAC) in San Francisco.

Power Architecture technology offers the broadest, most diverse market penetration of any microprocessor in the industry today. It is the digital heartbeat of all three, next-generation gaming console platforms and the electronic brains of the world's highest performance supercomputers. Power Architecture technology is also the leading platform for enterprise servers, automotive systems (powertrain, advanced safety and telematics), wireless and wireline infrastructure, and enterprise routing and switching.

"Less than 18 months after Power.org was formed, it is delivering key new Power Architecture open hardware specifications," said Roland Hagan, chairman of Power.org and vice president of marketing and strategy, IBM Technology Collaboration Solutions. "Equally important is the introduction of a new unified brand identity that the entire global Power Architecture community can benefit from. Simply put, Power Architecture technology stands at center stage today as a highly scalable and flexible platform for collaborative innovation in the global community across the widest range of products."

Announcement highlights

Merged instruction set architecture -- Power.org is introducing the next step in the roadmap for the instruction set architecture called Power ISA version 2.03. This improved ISA version incorporates the various capabilities of previous Power ISA versions, including virtualization, variable length encoding, vector processing technology (also know as AltiVec(TM) technology), and more. With Power ISA version 2.03, semiconductor vendors will have access to more categories of capabilities than ever before for their implementations. Moving forward, software and system developers will have a more consistent, compatible framework for creating products and platforms based on Power Architecture technology for a broad range of markets and applications. This new ISA version is planned to be released to the market this quarter as a result of the work of the Power Architecture Advisory Council (PAAC), which includes IBM (NYSE:IBM) and Freescale Semiconductor (NYSE:FSL, FSL.B).

Platform architecture specification -- The Power.org community is also preparing to release its first collaboratively developed open platform architecture, called the Power Architecture Platform Reference (PAPR) specification. PAPR provides the foundation for rapid development of standard Power Architecture platforms based on the Linux(R) operating system for select applications. The specification and associated reference design offers Power.org members and the Power Architecture development community a standard platform for streamlining the development of off-the-shelf Linux distributions and applications. The PAPR spec is scheduled for final release to Power.org members this quarter.

Unified brand and logo -- Reflecting the drive toward open hardware leadership, Power.org is launching a new, unified Power Architecture branding system that places all the various elements of Power Architecture technology under a common brand with an updated visual identity. A new green Power logo serves as the unifying symbol for the Power Architecture ecosystem. Power.org developed the brand standards and logo to ensure that stakeholders have the information and tools they need to effectively communicate the unique capabilities of Power Architecture technology to the marketplace. Power.org community members and customers can leverage the new Power brand to build value for their Power Architecture technology-based products and solutions.

"Ultimately, Power Architecture technology is far more than the ISA," said Charles King, principal analyst, Pund-IT, Inc. "It also represents an expanding ecosystem and developer community that enables faster, easier application development. In addition, it supports a wide range of end solutions, from consumer entertainment devices to automotive braking systems to wireless base station controllers to the world's fastest supercomputers. The elegant, new Power Architecture brand identity melds more than 15 years of architectural evolution and market-altering solutions with the forward-thinking invention and collaboration embodied in Power.org."

New Power.org Members

Demonstrating the increasing momentum behind Power Architecture technology in the marketplace, five new participant-level members have joined Power.org. They are:

EVE, a hardware-assisted verification provider, offers the fastest verification and most cycles per dollar by combining the best aspects of traditional emulation and rapid prototyping systems into a single, unified environment for ASIC and SoC debugging, and embedded software validation.

Oki Data Americas, Inc., headquartered in Mount Laurel, N.J., and a subsidiary of Oki Data Corporation of Japan, markets PC peripheral equipment under the OKI Printing Solutions brand, including digital color and monochrome printers, serial impact dot matrix printers, multifunction products and facsimiles.

CodeSourcery, founded in 1997 and located in California, provides open source project management and software design and engineering to the United States government and Fortune 500 companies, such as the Air Force Research Laboratory and Wind River Systems, Inc., to improve productivity and offer responsive consulting services.

CSIP, or the Ministry of Information Industry Software and Integrated Circuit Promotion Center, a China-based company, comprehensively promotes China's software industry to the international competition strength by participating in a global developing process, setting up research development, and expanding the market beyond their country's border.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), founded in 1896 and one of the oldest Chinese universities, is home to 20 academic schools with programs for undergraduate, Masters, Ph. D, and post-doctorate degrees. The university is best known for its development and contributions in the fields of science and technology.

In related news, the Power Application Center, the world's first dedicated center for collaboration and innovation on the Power Architecture technology, opened in Shanghai, China, earlier this month. This center offers facilities for clients and business partners, especially Power.org members.

About Power.org

Power.org is a community of more than 40 companies driving innovation around Power Architecture technology. Power.org provides an open ecosystem through which its members engage in collaborative innovation on Power Architecture technology. Power.org's mission is to optimize interoperability, accelerate innovation and drive increased adoption of this leading processor architecture. For more details, visit www.power.org.

The Power Architecture and Power.org word marks and the Power and Power.org logos and related marks are trademarks and service marks licensed by Power.org. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. (C) Power.org 2006.