London, U.K. — (press release excerpt) — MontaVista Software Inc. today announced the introduction of the company's first High Availability development tools for Linux-based embedded applications. The Hard Hat Linux High Availability Tool Kit is intended for designers of central office switching equipment, ISP/ASP systems, and other communications applications. It provides a standards-based, off-the-shelf software platform for building fault-resilient systems based on industry-standard CompactPCI and customer-specific hardware.

The new HA toolkit supports redundant system slot fail-over (RSS) and hot swap/hot replace of I/O cards in multi-CPU chassis. The toolkit enables developers to enhance the reliability of their applications by supporting redundant system slot processors to work in active/stand-by pairs (2N) with rapid fail-over from the active to the stand-by CPU. It also supports the in-place swapping of failed peripheral slot processors by technicians in response to hardware faults.

The new HA toolkit is structured as an add-on to the company's flagship embedded platform, Hard Hat Linux, and is available under product subscription from MontaVista. The toolkit includes key software components needed to support fault-resilient systems, including code that facilitates RSS fail-over, and ready-to-use hot swap “aware” device drivers and templates for standard peripheral slot CPUs. The offering also bundles training and professional services to speed HA technology insertion and reduce customer learning curves.

The toolkit currently supports the CompactPCI ZT5083 chassis from Ziatech Corporation (a division of Intel). In the third quarter of 2001, MontaVista will augment the toolkit with RSS and PICMG 2.12 hot swap for chassis and boards from Motorola Computer, SBS Technologies, Radisys Corporation, and other manufacturers. The upgraded offering will also support a larger framework of distributed computing software components.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.