Press Release

RidgeRun ^TM Announces DSPLinux ^TM SDK for OMAP and DSC21 DSPs

Embedded DSP Developers Get Early Access Through Beta Program

Boise, ID - March 21, 2001 - RidgeRun, Inc., announced their DSPLinux Software Development Kit (SDK) for the OMAP1510 and TMS320DSC21 processors from Texas Instruments. These new platforms combine an ARM7 or ARM9 core with a C5X digital signal processor (DSP). The DSPLinux SDK, now available in beta, includes a 2.4 version of the Linux ^TM operating system optimized for embedded devices, standard GNU development tools, and the Desktop Simulation Environment.

"The Desktop Simulation Environment is an extremely powerful tool which allows embedded developers to start developing their applications even before they have hardware available," said Phil Verghese, RidgeRun's CTO. "Our customers will be able to get their products done faster, with more creativity and testing, by writing applications on a desktop that will directly port to the OMAP and DSC target hardware." Without a simulation environment, embedded software developers have to wait until a hardware platform is running before they can start creating their software.

The Desktop Simulation Environment runs the embedded DSPLinux operating system as an application on a standard 2.4 Linux x86 development system. The entire DSPLinux operating system environment runs as part of the simulation, down to the lowest level of the Linux kernel. Developers can use the simulation environment to develop the applications, user interface, industrial design, and other key components of their embedded device.

RidgeRun is developing software that makes it easier to create and test the interaction between code running on the two heterogeneous processors (ARM and DSP). "There's been significant activity with symmetric multiprocessing on Linux, but we're tackling the harder problem of dealing with multiprocessing between different processor types," noted Dan George, RidgeRun's VP of Product Development.

The development tools provided in the SDK include the Open Source GNU C/C++ compiler, linker, assembler, and debugger. These are the same tools used by most Open Source projects, which makes it easy to run existing Open Source software on DSPLinux in the Desktop Simulation Environment.

The DSPLinux SDK is currently available in beta form to qualified embedded developers. Developers wishing to apply for participation in the beta program should send e-mail to beta@ridgerun.com, or fill out the online application at www.dsplinux.net.

About RidgeRun, Inc.

About RidgeRun, Inc. is exclusively focused on bringing the reliability and flexibility of Linux to embedded Internet appliances based on DSPs (digital signal processors). RidgeRun's DSPLinux is an operating system that leverages the power of Texas Instruments' dual-core DSP architectures to deliver the performance leading platform for wireless, broadband and multimedia appliances using DSPs. These include mobile phones; digital cameras, audio and video players, automotive systems, set-top boxes, home networking gateways, and PDAs. The RidgeRun team has extensive experience in developing world-class embedded systems, fault-tolerant software and high performance Linux solutions. RidgeRun can be reached at www.ridgerun.com or by e-mail to info@ridgerun.com.