Rymic Chooses Red Hat for Groundbreaking Military Vehicle Internet and Ethernet Diagnostic Device.

Business/Technology Editors

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2000

Real-time Monitoring Capability, Stability and Open Source

License Make Red Hat uClinux The Ideal Operating

System For First-of-Kind Ground Vehicle Assessment and

Diagnostic Device from Rymic Systems

Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT), the leader in developing, deploying and managing open source Internet infrastructure solutions, today announced that Rymic Systems, Inc. has chosen Red Hat's uClinux port as the operating system for a prototypical vehicle monitoring device soon to be tested by the United States Army. The embedded device will be incorporated in the Bradley fighting vehicles, heavy expanded mobility tactical trucks and humvees.

Under the terms of this agreement, Red Hat's uClinux will be used as the operating system for Rymic's first series of rymicNET Internet devices, designed for vehicle diagnostics and predictive failure analysis, initially to be tested in United States Army ground vehicles. uClinux is designed to run in less than 512k of memory while maintaining all of the stability, networking and file system support advantages of the standard Linux distribution.

"We've tried more traditional PC operating systems in the past for similar embedded appliances, but they were prone to instability, high power requirements and heat dissipation problems," said Steve May, Rymic president. "Red Hat's uClinux provides us with an inherently stable solution that monitors vehicles' performances in real time; because uClinux is open source software, costly per-unit license fees are eliminated."

Rymic's rymicNET device is a complete monitoring solution designed to provide extensive performance data and predictive failure analysis--initially for United States Army ground vehicles. This first-of-series device utilizes NetSilicon's Net+Arm low power Internet processor, designed for use in embedded networking environments, and Red Hat's embedded uClinux operating system. A complete family of rymicNET diagnostic and Real-World to Internet interface products will soon be available for construction equipment, railway cars, truck fleets and complex industrial machinery. For more information on Rymic Systems, Inc., please visit www.rymic.com.

The Internet device will be tried initially at Fort Riley, Kansas, and according to Pat Stevens, the deputy product manager of the U.S. Army Diagnostic Involvement Program, "The Rymic Internet device could be installed on 3,000 to 50,000 Army trucks, service and fighting vehicles."

"Rymic, with its new line of rymicNET devices, is on the cutting edge of Internet device technology," said Michael Tiemann, CTO, Red Hat, Inc. "Red Hat is leading the charge toward widespread acceptance of embedded computing devices with a complete solution portfolio spanning award-winning embedded software, tools, embedded runtimes and a revolutionary support framework in the Red Hat Network."

Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT) offers users one single, trusted point of contact and a common platform for developing, deploying and managing open source across Internet infrastructure and devices that connect to the Internet, ranging from small embedded devices to high availability clusters and integrated Web server/e-commerce OSes. And the Red Hat Network, Red Hat's unique management technology, helps companies worldwide easily manage it all by delivering open source products, service, support and information on-line in real-time.

In addition to the award-winning Red Hat Linux server operating system, Red Hat offers Stronghold Secure Web Server and Credit Card Verification Software for secure e-commerce and is the principal provider of GNU-based developer tools and support solutions for a wide variety of embedded processors. Red Hat also provides run-time solutions such as Linux, eCos, uClinux, the award-winning RedBoot, custom engineering services, support, and training to organizations in all embedded and Linux markets.

Red Hat is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Please visit Red Hat on the Web at www.redhat.com. For investor inquiries, contact Lippert/Heilshorn at [phone].

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