Sun Microsystems says MontaVista is porting its Carrier Grade Linux distribution to AMD-based Sun server hardware based on the AdvancedTCA specification. Additionally, MontaVista says Artesyn Communications will sell MontaVista's Carrier Grade Edition (CGE) product directly, pre-installed in Flash memory on PICMG 2.16, AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC, and ProcessorPMC blades and modules.

Sun to offer CGE option

Sun demonstrated several products from a forthcoming Netra ATCA line at the 2005 VON (voice over net) conference this week in Boston. New Netra products include ATCA servers and blades powered by both Sun's own UltraSPARC chips, and by dual-core AMD Opteron processors. The products will be available with Sun's carrier-grade Solaris OS, or, when based on AMD chips, with MontaVista's CGE Linux OS. They will target “emerging high-bandwidth telephony networks,” Sun says, including “IP-based telephony services, such as voice, video and data.”

Although the company built its business locking in customers with proprietary, non-interoperable hardware designs, Sun announced in September of 2004 that it would support ATCA and Carrier Grade Linux on a forthcoming family of carrier network equipment. Within weeks, Sun was rumored to be in acquisition talks with MontaVista, an early Carrier Grade Linux leader.

Sun's VP of Netra Systems, Raju Penumatcha, said, “Today we are demonstrating a major step toward enabling choice in our upcoming ATCA platform. This will be the first carrier grade Sun product to offer AMD Opteron and SPARC processor-based blades with the Solaris OS and Linux.”

About CGL and ATCA

Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) is an open standard maintained by an OSDL (Open Source Development Lab) working group. As an open standard, it holds the promise of de-coupling basic operating system technology from specific vendors. MontaVista offered some of the first Carrier Grade Linux products, but registered CGL products are also currently available from TimeSys, Novell, FSMLabs, Wind River, and Asianux.

MontaVista says its CGE product is the only available CGL distribution to support both the CGL 2.0 specification and the Service Availability Forum (SA Forum) Application Interface Specifications for high availability services.

Similarly, AdvancedTCA (ATCA) defines a standardized architecture for telecommunication hardware aimed at boosting business efficiencies compared to proprietary telecom equipment designs. ATCA equipment currently accounts for up to a quarter of current 3G wireless equipment rollouts in certain areas, ABI says, and it is expected to proliferate further in the years ahead.

Artesyn to offer CGE option

Number three carrier network equipment maker Artesyn has announced that it will sell MontaVista's CGE OS directly, as a pre-installation option on PICMG 2.16, AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC, and ProcessorPMC blades and modules. Carrier network equipment marketshare leader Motorola has a similar OEM arrangement with MontaVista.

MontaVista competitor Wind River earlier announced that its CGL product was named by Artesyn as the “preferred, though non-exclusive” CGL distribution on certain equipment.

Artesyn's VP of marketing, Todd Wynia, said, “Embedded Linux is emerging as a dominant platform for building high-availability network infrastructure products.”

MontaVista CGE is available immediately from MontaVista for Artesyn's PowerPC-based PICMG 2.16 Katana 750i, 752i, 3750, and 3752 blades, as well as for the company's PowerQUICC-based Pm8560 protocol engine. Artesyn will announce bundled, certified MontaVista CGE solutions for select PICMG 2.16, AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC and ProcessorPMC blades and modules at a future date.

 
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