The world's largest provider of telecommunications and cable network test equipment has announced that it used MontaVista Software's embedded Linux in its latest product. Acterna says it turned to embedded Linux because the proprietary embedded OS used in its older products no longer met scalability requirements.

(Click for larger view of MTS-8000)

The MTS-8000 optical line tester is designed for field use in both outside plant and central office applications, and is Acterna's most compact and cost-effective solution for optical network testing, the company says. With a complete range of testing modules, the MTS-8000 enables full fiber characterization and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) system upgrades.

Acterna's embedded Linux based portable optical network tester

“The proprietary embedded operating environment used previously no longer met our needs for scalability,” commented Olivier Masselin, R&D manager for Acterna's Fiber Optics unit.

“We evaluated many different RTOSes and decided on MontaVista Linux because of its robustness and versatility,” Masselin continued. “MontaVista Software provided us with excellent support and enabled us to minimize software development time. We also appreciated the fact that MontaVista Linux had been validated to work seamlessly with our chosen hardware platform — the PowerPC 405GPr processor from IBM.”

The MTS-8000 optical line tester is based on an IBM PowerPC 405GPr embedded processor. MontaVista Software says it was one of the first embedded software companies to develop a Linux-based platform for the IBM PowerPC family of processors.

“The IBM PowerPC 405GPr high-frequency, low-power system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor is perfect for this type of telecommunications application,” noted Ray Bryant, director of PowerPC products, IBM Microelectronics.

MontaVista Linux Professional Edition provides a common source and binary platform across a broad range of processor architectures. It includes a modern operating system with real-time functionality, and multi-process and multi-threading capabilities, and includes hundreds of bundled software components, according to MontaVista.

Acterna supplies equipment to several major telecommunications operators worldwide, it says, with more than 10,000 field-proven units deployed.

The Acterna MTS-8000 was announced Nov. 21, 2003, and will be available to customers this month.

 
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