Wind River Introduces VxWorks AE and Tornado Tools 3.

Business Editors and Technology Writers

Embedded Systems Conference

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 2000

Breakthrough Development Platform Enables New Levels of Reliability,

Availability, Serviceability, and Security in Embedded Designs

Wind River Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:WIND), a leading provider of software and services for smart devices in the Internet age, today introduced VxWorks(R) AE (advanced edition) real-time operating system (RTOS) and Tornado(R) Tools 3.

Previously code-named Cirrus, this new development platform will help developers meet demanding reliability, availability, serviceability, and security (RASS) requirements in embedded computers. Field-tested by more than 125 customers and partners, the VxWorks AE RTOS and Tornado Tools 3 will be demonstrated at the upcoming Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, CA., September 26-28, 2000, as well as multiple embedded computing conferences worldwide throughout the fall. (See related announcement, Wind River to Deliver Dramatic Advance in Operating System Technology, June 19, 2000).

The VxWorks AE/Tornado Tools 3 platform is targeted at manufacturers building service-critical Internet infrastructure equipment and Internet appliances, mission-critical defense and aerospace systems, and life-critical medical products. It enables 99.999% up time or High Availability (HA), a critical requirement for telecom and electronic service providers as well as manufacturers of smart devices such as telecom equipment.

Unparalleled Developer Control to Tune Protection and Performance

The major innovation of the VxWorks AE is a new operating system protection model called "Protection Domains." A fundamental improvement over traditional protection paradigms such as the process model, VxWorks AE delivers the benefits of application and kernel isolation without unnecessary complexity, increased overhead, or rigid programming conventions. Protection Domains offers unparalleled flexibility to tune the protection boundaries within the application code for optimal reliability, availability, serviceability, and security, also known as High Availability. VxWorks AE RTOS is the world's first commercial operating system based on the Protection Domain model.

VxWorks AE provides the basis for more advanced HA features from Wind River including fault-tolerant distributed messaging, hardware hot swap, a fault detection and recovery framework, and chassis support packages from the leading HA chassis manufacturers.

Next Generation of Tornado

VxWorks AE is accompanied by the latest version of the award-winning Tornado development environment, called Tornado Tools 3, which is an integrated development environment specifically designed to allow embedded developers to take advantage of the new Protection Domains model. Highlights include a new C/C++ multi-tasking debugger optimized for object-oriented design; a new system object browser for increased visibility into target CPU behavior; an enhanced RTOS configuration tool for optimizing the configuration of both the VxWorks AE and application code; an enhanced project management tool for more efficient code development and management; and an optimized version of the GNU tool chain for C and C++.

"The launch of VxWorks AE and Tornado Tools 3 is a significant event for Wind River and the industry at large," commented Jerry Fiddler, chairman and co-founder of Wind River. "This new development platform enables a new class of embedded developers to take advantage of the Wind River value proposition. This proposition includes professional services, advanced networking protocols and middleware, advanced development and visualization tools, support for the leading microprocessor families, and the value-add products and services of over 500 WindLink(TM) Partners."

"With the new Wind River VxWorks AE and Tornado Tools 3, combined with Motorola Computer Group's award-winning high availability CPX8000 platform, current and new customers can build highly available solutions for a demanding telecom environment. Most importantly, our customers are still able to meet their reliability and high availability requirement without sacrificing performance," said Tom McKearney, vice president and director of marketing, telecommunications business, Motorola Computer Group.

Availability

The first commercial version of VxWorks AE and Tornado Tools 3 is scheduled to ship in Fall, 2000. The platform will initially support the PowerPC, Intel Architecture -- 32 (i.e. Pentium, Celeron, Pentium II, and Pentium III), MIPS, and ARM processor families. Host support includes Sun Solaris, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and RedHat Linux. A complete selection of Wind River optional products such as advance networking protocols and embedded visualization development tools are also available for VxWorks AE and Tornado Tools 3.

About Wind River

Wind River, www.windriver.com, is a worldwide leader in embedded software. Wind River provides software development tools, real-time operating systems, and advanced connectivity for use in products throughout the Internet, telecommunications and data communications, digital imaging, digital consumer electronics, networking, medical, computer peripherals, automotive, industrial automation and control, and aerospace/defense markets. Wind River is how smart things think. Founded in 1983, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations in sixteen countries worldwide.

Wind River Systems, the Wind River Systems logo, VxWorks, and Tornado are registered trademarks and WindLink is a trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc. Other names are registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective companies or organizations.