Red Hat Delivers Embedded Innovations to Reduce Time-to-Market and Improve Embedded Developer and OEM Productivity

RedBoot and EL/IX Provide Portability, Enable Code Reuse and Ease Deployment for Manufacturers of Next-generation Embedded Devices

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Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT) the leader in developing, deploying and managing open source Internet infrastructure solutions, today announced two new major technical advances that improve productivity and time-to-market for the developers and manufacturers of embedded solutions: RedBootTM embedded debug and bootstrap solution, and the EL/IXTM Level I compatibility layer for eCosTM (embedded configurable operating system).

RedBoot Debug Environment
Unveiled at the Embedded Systems Conference West, Booth # 1038 in San Jose Calif., RedBoot is a standardized embedded debug and bootstrap solution that provides firmware for running and debugging eCos, GNUPro applications and embedded Linux systems on a wide range of embedded platforms including ARM, MIPS, MN10300, PowerPC, SH, V850, and x86. RedBoot supports remote, portable downloading and debugging of GNUPro and eCos applications, flash and network booting, and downloading and updating of flash images remotely via serial or ethernet connections for field upgradeability. Based on the eCos HAL, RedBoot provides a common environment for booting and debugging applications regardless of the underlying hardware platform, thus providing more opportunities for code re-use and commonality.

"Our customers have told us that they need to be able to re-use embedded software across a variety of embedded platform configurations and applications, ranging from small and deeply embedded to thin-client and larger sizes. They are looking for consistent and well-defined interfaces that help them leverage their investment in software development across multiple applications and multiple architectures." says Michael Tiemann, CTO of Red Hat. "Supporting code re-use results in higher quality software and reduces time-to-market. It is also extremely attractive to middleware software providers, where application of EL/IX extends their reach into greater markets. "

EL/IX reduces time-to-market
The EL/IX Level I compatibility layer is a configurable application programming interface (API) based on a subset of the POSIX.1 and ISO C standards plus extensions from Linux/GNU and BSD sockets that are applicable to embedded applications. The result is an API that is more concise than the simple union of those standards because unnecessary or duplicated functionality is eliminated.

EL/IX Level I provides functionality available in both Linux and in typical deeply embedded operating systems. Use of EL/IX improves time-to-market by enabling code re-use and by capitalizing on engineers' existing experience in Linux programming. With the EL/IX Level I compatibility layer available for Red Hat eCos, embedded system developers can write portable code and redeploy their embedded software in a variety of applications, from small, deeply embedded or real-time applications to large applications running full versions of Linux and every point in between those two extremes.

EL/IX provides a bi-directional path for both upgrading and reducing device functionality. One can migrate from eCos to Linux in enhanced versions of a given device, and from Linux to eCos in order to get real-time capability or to reduce the size and cost of making the device. And like eCos, the EL/IX compatibility layer is completely configurable providing developers with a high degree of flexibility and control over feature, size, and performance of their runtime system.

These technical contributions are completely open source and available at http://sources.redhat.com/ecos. For a complete technical overview, please visit http://www.redhat.com/embedded/.

The eCos real-time operating system
Developed as an open source RTOS, eCos is highly customizable and adaptable, and can be easily configured with the aid of the eCos graphical configuration tool to meet exacting application-specific requirements. Since eCos is an open-source standard created by Red Hat, it inherently provides engineers with maximum control, flexibility and understanding over all aspects of their embedded solution. Red Hat provides eCos Developer Kits which are integrated with the latest releases of GNUPro, support programs, and custom engineering services. In addition, eCos has been ported to 8 CPU architectures and dozens of reference platforms and has a µITRON compatibility layer.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

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  • About Red Hat
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