News - FUJITSU

Tokyo, January 20, 2003 - Fujitsu Limited and FSMLabs, Inc. today announced that they have been verifying FSMLabs' RTLinux/Pro(*1) on evaluation boards with Fujitsu's FR-V(*2) family of processors and have validated exceptional levels of real-time processing performance required for multi-media equipment. FSMLabs Japan Ltd., the Japan office of FSMLabs, will start selling this system "RTLinux/Pro for FR-V" from February 1st.

In recent years an increasing number of companies have begun offering embedded equipment based on the Linux operating system. But real-time processing is essential to smoothly process information in digital entertainment systems or car navigation systems that handle streams of digital images, and therefore real-time processing is absolutely essential.

Fujitsu's FR-V family of processors is already being used in digital home appliances and mobile electronics for high-performance multimedia processing with low power demands.

FSMLabs' RTLinux/Pro has a number of outstanding features for real-time performance, such as the ability to guarantee a maximum response time, high reliability, and a POSIX (*3) API, as well as a scalable interface for optional features, such as real-time communications.

Embedding RTLinux/Pro in the FR-V family of processors yields the highest levels of real-time performance. These embedded systems deliver best case scheduling jitter of one microsecond or less and in the worst case never more than 34 microseconds, making them considerably faster than equivalent existing real-time systems from other companies. Scheduling jitter is the worst case delay of a periodic task and it accounts for worst case interrupt latency, plus scheduling overhead, plus context switch time. Low scheduling jitter is a key performance criterion for real-time operating systems.

Fujitsu and FSMLabs will continue to pursue performance enhancements to the FR-V family of processors and RTLinux/Pro for FR-V to meet the needs of digital entertainment equipment and vehicle systems.

About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting technologies, high-reliability/performance computing and telecommunications platforms, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts make Fujitsu uniquely positioned to unleash the infinite possibilities of the broadband Internet to help its customers succeed. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 5 trillion yen (about US$38 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/

About FSMLabs
A core technology company founded by the creators of RTLinux, FSMLabs sells supports and offers training and engineering services for the RTLinux/Pro and RTCore/BSD hard real-time OS to control "mission critical" applications in the fields of robotics, FA systems, communications, and multi-media.

About FSMLabs Japan
FSMLabs Japan is a Japanese corporation that is a joint venture between FSMLabs Inc. and several Japanese embedded systems providers. FSMLabs Japan provides a full range of sales, support, training, and engineering services for FSMLabs Inc. products.

Glossary

*1. RTLinux/Pro:: POSIX-compliant operating system from FSMLabs, Inc. Compared to the GPL edition of Open Linux, this is a commercial operating system for embedded and pro-spec systems, offering higher quality, added value, and high productivity, including an interface for adding optional features.
*2. FR-V processor family: Processors built around the FR-V core, which uses VLIW architecture. The series is oriented towards applications in digital home entertainment equipment and mobile devices.
*3. POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for Unix): An IEEE standard application interface for Unix. IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is a U.S. organization of engineers involved in communications, electronics and computing.

Trademark notice

FSMLabs is a trademark of Finite State Machine Labs, Inc.
RTLinux is a registered trademark of Finite State Machine Labs, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
All other product names and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

[Product Inquiries]

Fujitsu Limited: Public & Investor Relations
Nozomi Endo, Nancy Ikehara
Tel: +81-3-3215-5259 (Tokyo)
Press Inquiries

FSMLabs Japan: Tel: +81-42-724-2701
E-mail: sales@fsmlabs.co.jp

[Customer Contact]

For inquiries regarding RTLinux/Pro for FR-V, contact:: FSMLabs Japan
Tel: +81-42-724-2701
E-mail: sales@fsmlabs.co.jp

For inquiries regarding the FR-V family of processors, contact:: Fujitsu Limited
Electronic Devices Group
Marketing Department
Tel: +81-3-5322-3321 (Tokyo)
E-mail: edevice@fujitsu.com

All company/product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and are used for identification purpose only.
Please understand that product prices, specifications and other details are current on the day of issue of the press release, however, may change thereafter without notice.

FSMLabs Supports the Fujitsu FR-V Processor Family with RTLinux/Pro