NETWORKS

BOSTON, MA -- Vendors building high-end networking equipment can now support more network services with less hardware, build greater scalability into their systems with less software development, and deploy systems faster without sacrificing high availability, thanks to the unique capabilities of the new QNX Networking Infrastructure Platform. Designed for IP, optical and storage network equipment, the platform provides a comprehensive suite of tools and protocol stacks to accelerate product development; a software architecture that supports new applications and services on the fly; a ready-to-customize HA framework that simplifies automatic fault detection and recovery; and built-in distributed networking so developers can easily distribute applications across clusters of networked CPUs -- without having to write network-specific code. The new platform also offers designers of networking products a distinct advantage: the raw performance of symmetric multi-processing (SMP), without the programming headaches. With SMP, a control-plane processor board can deliver twice the power to handle new network routes and services - no need to incur the cost, board space, and power consumption of additional CPU cards. And QNX is the only RTOS to support SMP inherently: all multithreaded applications, drivers, and protocols can gain full advantage of SMP, without code changes. Other major features include: -- QNX RTOS v6.1 - An MMU-protected microkernel OS that can recover automatically from software faults, even in drivers and protocol stacks, without rebooting. Allows almost any process - protocol stack, driver, application - to be added or upgraded dynamically. -- Choice of development platforms - OEMs can choose from cross-development on Solaris or Windows, or self-hosted development on the QNX realtime platform. -- QNX High Availability Toolkit - Enables quick failure detection and recovery by looking for software hangups and deadlocks, not just crashes. -- Embedding Kit - Helps developers bring up custom boards quickly by providing source code, runtime binaries, and documentation. Also includes off-the-shelf BSPs for popular boards. -- QNX System Analysis Toolkit - Provides rich kernel diagnostics so OEMs can troubleshoot systems remotely, both during development and at runtime. -- Qnet(TM) micronetworking - Enables developers to distribute applications across clusters of networked CPUs, without having to write network code. Also supports multiple data paths between nodes for greater fault-tolerance and throughput. -- Protocol Stacks - Supported stacks include MPLS, OSPF, BGP, BGP4, RIP, RIPv2, ATM, Frame Relay, x.25 and ISDN. -- Third Party Productivity Tools - QNX now supports modeling tools, software measurement tools, and IDEs from Applied Microsystems, I-Logix, Metrowerks and Rational. -- Network Management - Includes SNMPv1/v2/v3, RMON and CORBA. -- Hardware - BSPs for boards and processors from Motorola SPS, IBM, Marvell, Tundra and others. "Networking equipment vendors are under pressure to deliver products that enable carriers and service providers to deliver next-generation services more cost-effectively - without compromising reliability," said Alec Saunders, vice president of marketing at QNX." Because the QNX Networking Infrastructure Platform offers a way to make high-end equipment more efficient in terms of development cost, deployment and performance, we see a great opportunity to provide OEMs with a much-needed boost in growth and innovation." For additional information visit www.qnx.com