Framingham, MA — (company press release) — Natural MicroSystems Corporation, an open Telecommunications leader providing convergence technologies to the world's premier suppliers of communications solutions, today announced broad support for the Linux operating system. Developers will be able to create leading-edge voice and data applications and enhanced services, using the operating system of their… choice — including Windows NT, SPARC Solaris, UnixWare and now Linux — in conjunction with Natural MicroSystems' hardware and software solutions.

Linux is the fastest growing server operating system in the industry, according to a 1999 report by International Data Corporation (IDC Report #18662). Leading service and equipment providers such as Nortel, Lucent and Motorola Computer Group (MCG) are rapidly adopting Linux, due in part to the fact that it offers the reliability and stability benefits of UNIX with additional advantages that an open source architecture can provide. Natural MicroSystems' support for Linux further extends the interoperability of its convergence-enabling solutions with the widest range of operating systems, as well as hardware, software, protocols and interfaces being utilized throughout the world today.

“Finding a technology partner like Natural MicroSystems who is responsive to our needs and changing market dynamics, has allowed us to further leverage the advantages that Linux offers our customers of advanced high availability telecom platforms,” said John Hughes, vice president and director, Telecommunications Business Unit, Motorola Computer Group (MCG). “As an early adopter of Linux, Motorola Computer Group has always seen the value that Linux can bring to our OEM telecom customers. We recognize that the movement toward open systems is helping companies such as ours, bring leading-edge high availability, carrier grade solutions to market faster than ever before. In addition to the benefits of Linux, Natural MicroSystems further enables us to speed product development by providing an excellent architecture and an open development environment that greatly simplifies integration.”

A Full Line of Linux Support

Natural MicroSystems will offer broad support for Linux across its AG family of PCI and CompactPCI resource boards, for its NaturalFax software, and within the CT Access runtime environment in the third quarter. Details of these enhancements include:

• Support for all voice and fax functions within the AG2000 and AG4000 family of digital signal processing (DSP) resource and network interface hardware;
  
• Full compatibility with a host of worldwide protocols including ISDN and CAS;
  
• Support on Linux for NaturalFax, Natural MicroSystems' fax software for the AG board family;
  
• Operating system support for CT Access, Natural MicroSystems' modular run-time and development environment for voice, fax and call;
  
• Support for Fusion, the leading development platform for scalable, high performance IP gateway solutions, will be available late in 2000;
  
• Open source Linux drivers are available on the “Open Source for Open Telecom” site, located at www.opentelecom.org;
  
• Worldwide availability of NaturalEdge consulting, support, integration, and testing services, for Linux developers who want to accelerate development and deployment of applications.

The telecommunications industry is rapidly embracing Linux because of the carrier-grade stability and reliability it can offer, and for the flexibility and portability that its open architecture allows. Tens of thousands of developers can refine the operating system and leverage its use, and take advantage of built-in cross-platform for a variety of hardware systems — enabling developers to write one set of applications for use on multiple platforms. Support for Linux throughout the Natural MicroSystems' product offering parallels its ongoing support for Open Telecommunications — promoting the highest success of interoperability within the rapidly changing telecommunications landscape.

“We work closely with our partners to determine how our products can best suit their needs and support for Linux is at the top of the list for industry leaders such as Motorola, Lucent and Nortel,” said R. Brough Turner, senior vice president of technology at Natural MicroSystems. “The rapid adoption of Linux as an accepted corporate standard makes this a natural progression for Natural MicroSystems, and we remain firmly committed to supporting the underlying foundation of interoperability by enabling our customers to deploy on the platform of their choice — including Linux.”

About Natural MicroSystems

Natural MicroSystems, based in Framingham, MA, provides network-quality products, design and customization resources to the world's leading suppliers of converged communications solutions and applications. By using Natural MicroSystems' products and services, equipment providers benefit from reduced time-to-market when delivering best-in-class high-performance IP gateways, IP media servers, wireless/IP gateways, network-based enhanced services and other voice/data/video solutions. Natural MicroSystems' state-of-the-art products and technologies, including SS7 and CompactPCI, are based on open standards-based platforms, collectively referred to in the industry as Open Telecommunications. Founded in 1983, Natural MicroSystems' products and services are available in more than 40 countries, and the quality processes at the company have earned ISO 9002 certification.

 
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