LinuxLink Subscription Accelerates Embedded Development

Rousset, France and Pittsburgh, PA, USA, April 14, 2008...Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML),and TimeSys® announced today embedded Linux® support for Atmel¡¯s ARM9™-based AT91CAP9 customizable microcontroller. Ideal for rapid design validation, TimeSys is offering a free Board Support Package (BSP) for the CAP9 based on the 2.6.23 kernel. Additionally, the free BSP can be upgraded to a full LinuxLink subscription, providing a powerful suite of software, tools and support to accelerate the development of a custom Linux platform.

The free BSP enables application developers to rapidly validate Linux on the AT91CAP9A Development Board that includes an FPGA for emulation of the CAP™ Metal Programmable Block for custom logic. This BSP includes Atmel¡¯s Linux kernel and drivers, BusyBox utilities for basic commands and features, and a Linux host/cross toolchain capable of re-building the Linux kernel and the basic packages included in the BSP. Together with a full documentation set and basic support, this offering provides a ready-to-use package to validate Linux with Atmel¡¯s CAP customizable microcontroller.

By upgrading to a full LinuxLink subscription, application developers can rapidly create their own customized Linux software platform, with access to an expanded, regularly updated list of Linux components optimized for CAP9, including the 2.6.23 Linux kernel, hundreds of packages pre-compiled for use with CAP9, and a reference distribution that provides an integrated and tested starting point for platform customization. The LinuxLink subscription also includes a robust collection of open source and TimeSys-developed tools, including the TimeStorm Eclipse-based IDE, as well as extensive documentation and support.

Michel Le Lan, Atmel¡¯s Marketing Director for ASIC products, commented, ¡°We welcome TimeSys to the growing community of value-added service providers that we are building around our CAP™ customizable microcontroller. TimeSys contributes years of experience in embedded Linux, enabling our mutual customers to rapidly develop a solid Linux platform to support their CAP applications.¡±

Greg Quiggle, Vice President of Sales and Marketing from TimeSys, added, ¡°TimeSys is pleased to build on the success of its LinuxLink subscriptions and BSPs that have been developed for Atmel¡¯s AT91SAM ARM9 based microcontrollers. Extending our product portfolio to the CAP9 opens up new horizons in the field of customizable microcontrollers.¡±

The TimeSys CAP9 LinuxLink and BSP will be demonstrated both at the Atmel stand (Booth # 928), and the TimeSys stand (Booth #946), during the Embedded Systems Conference, San Jose, CA, USA, from April 14-18, 2008.

Atmel¡¯s CAP Customizable Microcontroller

Atmel¡¯s CAP™ is an ARM® microcontroller-based system-on-chip with fast local memory, a wide range of industry-standard peripherals and interfaces, and a Metal Programmable (MP) Block that allows the designer to add custom logic. By combining the performance, density and low power consumption of the fixed portion of the device with the flexibility of the MP Block, CAP enables application-specific products to be developed in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of standard-cell ASICs, but at a unit price close to that of standard cell devices. CAP¡¯s Metal Programmable Block can be personalized with IP cores from Atmel¡¯s extensive library of product-tested functions, or from accredited third parties, or with cores developed by the CAP customer to give the application-specific product its competitive edge. CAP also offers superior performance, smaller form factor and lower power consumption at a unit price significantly lower than an MCU-plus-FPGA combination for the same functionality. CAP is fully supported with an emulation board, software development tools, operating systems and code modules to facilitate application software development.

Availability and Pricing

The TimeSys LinuxLink and BSP for CAP9 are available now from TimeSys. The CAP9 BSP is free of charge; contact TimeSys for information regarding LinuxLink subscription pricing.