East Fishkill, NY and Sunnyvale, CA — (press release excerpt) — IBM and MontaVista Software, Inc., today announced a technology agreement under which MontaVista's embedded Linux platform will expand its support for the IBM PowerPC microprocessor.

The agreement is designed to help ensure the IBM PowerPC microprocessors are fully supported by MontaVista Linux for embedded system and networking applications. IBM and MontaVista also plan to pursue joint sales and marketing activities.

In a separate, concurrent action, IBM has also taken a small equity stake in MontaVista. Terms were not disclosed.

The scalable IBM PowerPC architecture provides a common Linux programming platform across the e-business infrastructure. The IBM PowerNP and IBM PowerPC processors and cores are suited for data storage devices and servers that feed the network; wired hubs, routers, and switches that make up the network; and the hand-held communications devices and other pervasive computing products that access the network.

IBM's stand-alone microprocessors and embedded processors are available in speeds ranging from 25 to 700MHz, each varying in power consumption, cost, size, and level of integration.

MontaVista Linux Professional Edition is available direct from MontaVista and MontaVista distribution channels worldwide as a product subscription, providing the MontaVista Linux kernel, software updates, utilities, development tools and one year of technical support. It is open source, royalty-free, and built from 100 percent pure Linux sources. Also available from MontaVista Software are expanded technology add-on products, including embedded Java, High-Availability technology, and powerful graphical toolkits.

 
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