Real-time Operating System vendors commit support for FORCE COMPUTERS' New PowerCore product family.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1996--The announcement of FORCE COMPUTERS' new PowerPC platform has been welcomed by six of the leading Real-Time Operating System vendors who have already committed to support the new boards.

The partners endorsing the latest product line include Chorus Systems, Enea OSE Systems AB, Integrated Systems Inc., Lynx Real-Time Systems Inc., Microtec Research Inc. and Wind River Systems Inc. Each of these vendors provide the most popular software for their respective embedded computing markets and FORCE has historically been working closely with them to ensure that our customers may run their applications on their platforms of choice.

Fred Rehhausser, Vice President Marketing at Chorus Systems

"FORCE's new PowerCore platform is an integral part of Chorus' strategy to provide CHORUS/ClassiX on the latest and most sophisticated PowerPC products as they become available on the market. We are working with FORCE to offer the benefits of CHORUS/ClassiX, our newly architected `Componentized OS' to provide unprecedented flexibility and `superscalability' on the PowerCore embedded computer platform. The combination of PowerCore's high performance and the CHORUS/ClassiX breakthrough high availability technology, provide a powerful solution for a new generation of mission-critical and non-stop telecommunications applications."

The CHORUS portation is being undertaken by Alex Informatique SARL who launched the first ever binary package of the CHORUS micro-kernel and CHORUS/ClassiX for PowerPC last Spring on FORCE's CPU-603/604 boards.

"Now that FORCE Computers unveils its second generation of PowerPC boards, with all the performance, price and features required to make it a forerunner in the VME PowerPC market, we our are proud to be among its supporters," said Dominique Grabas, Technical Director and Product Manager at Alex Informatique S.A.R.L. "Our full range of CHORUS-based Operating System and development environment portfolio will be available on the PowerCore just as the first customers will need to start their designs. And thanks to the increase performance of the board and the PowerPC expertise we've acquired with the first generation from FORCE, it will be an even faster and more attractive product."

Lars Oesterberg, President of Enea OSE Systems

"OSE is ideally suited for use in High Availability real-time systems where non-stop operation is required. The availability of OSE on the FORCE PowerCore platform will give customers a high performance solution that allows hot software updates."

A beta release of the OSE board support for the PowerCore is scheduled for the end of Q1 1997 and will include support for the timer device, serial device, ethernet device and interrupt controller.

John Hogan, Director of pSOSystem Product Marketing at Integrated Systems Inc.

"ISI is committed to providing complete solutions for customers in our target market areas. We have chosen to support the FORCE PowerCore because its high performance PowerPC core and flexible PMC architecture is a great match for the high throughput I/O needs of our customers in the communications and server areas." As a member of their Reference Platform Family, Integrated Systems will maintain the Board Support Package and test the BSP against new releases of pSOSystem. Support for this BSP will be included in the next regularly scheduled PowerPC release of pSOSystem.

Derek Taylor, Vice President Sales & Marketing at Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc.

"LynxOS will support the FORCE PowerCore board architecture in both native and cross development environments. LynxOS 2.5 will be available in December of 1996 and will gain an add-on support of PowerCore early in the first quarter of 1997.

"The PowerCore with LynxOS will provide a high performance solution for FORCE customers by providing a modular Core Architecture along with the real-time predictability, determinism, performance, standards, and stability of LynxOS. Complete support of the PowerCore for both native and cross development will also include the PosixWorks suite of tools, including: Total View, TimeScan, LynxInsure++, and the GNU toolchain."

Steve Schmidt, Vice President of Marketing at Microtec Research Inc.

"Microtec is pleased to announce plans to support the PowerCore family of VME boards for use with Microtec's Spectra 4.0 development system, the industry's only open and scalable Embedded IDE (Integrated Development Environment). The powerful features of these new boards can be utilized to their fullest advantage when combined with Microtec's proven VRTX real-time operating system, optimizing C and C++ compilers, and XRAY Pro debug suite."

David Larrimore, Vice President of Marketing for Wind River Systems

"The success of the PowerPC processor in the embedded world is directly related to the availability of the best board and development tool combination for bringing products to market quickly and with minimal risk. We are pleased that Wind River's open and extensible Tornado development environment will be available for FORCE's new Power Core PowerPC VME boards. This solution will be especially popular in the telecommunications markets."

CONTACT: FORCE COMPUTERS Inc.

Elizabeth Wilkinson, 408/369-6156

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http://www.forcecomputers.com