Sunnyvale, CA — (press release excerpt) — MontaVista Software Inc. today announced that its High Availability Framework for Hard Hat Linux 2.0 is available immediately to customers. The High Availability Framework is second-generation software that provides a standards-based platform for fault-resilient systems. It was introduced and demonstrated at Linux World and Expo in San Francisco in August. HA Framework is targeted for “service critical” applications that typically have heavy I/O requirements such as switching equipment, service provider systems, streaming media and VoIP.

HA Framework provides an open architecture platform for building fault-resilient systems based on CompactPCI industry standards and it enables telecom equipment manufacturers to minimize development and design costs by enhancing the availability of CompactPCI I/O bus, network and storage subsystems with out-of-the-box functionality such as redundant Ethernet connections and software RAID1.

MontaVista¹s HA Framework, an add-on product to Hard Hat Linux Professional Edition, provides the core for an open architecture high availability solution based on PICMG (PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturing Group) standards. Hard Hat Linux is one of the leading development platforms available to embedded developers today.

Highlights of the HA Framework include . . .

• Supports latest 2.4.2 Linux kernel
  
• PICMG 2.12 CompactPCI hot swap
  
• Active/Backup Ethernet support
  
• Hot swap aware Ethernet drivers
  
• Disk mirroring (RAID 1) with boot support on x86 architectures
  
• Hot swap aware Hard Hat Net
  
• IPMI support (RadiSys only)
  
• Framework for kernel resource monitoring and publish and subscribe event brokering

The MontaVista HA Framework initially supports multiple leading CompactPCI chasses, System Slot CPUs and Intelligent I/O boards, including popular Intel x86/IA-32 processor boards from Motorola and RadiSys, and popular PowerPC processor boards from Motorola and other vendors.

Background

High Availability (HA) is a term for technology that enhances the “up-time” of computer systems by distributing functionality across multiple CPUs. CompactPCI systems are designed for HA systems by reducing single points of failure in a single chassis. In response to hardware and software failures, CompactPCI HA systems facilitate the rapid transfer of control (fail-over) from a faulty CPU, peripheral, or software component to a functional one, while preserving operations or transactions in-progress at the time of failure. Many embedded designers choose the standard CompactPCI board and system form factor for HA designs since it supports replacement and insertion of system and peripheral cards without the need for cycling power, reducing technician-assisted time-to-repair.

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