TASKING and PLX Deliver Groundbreaking PowerPC Solution

Tool Suite Provides Solutions for the PLX IOP 480 PowerPC I/O Processor

Dedham, MA, JUN 19, 2000 — TASKING, The Embedded Communications Company, today announced a partnership with PLX Technology that brings TASKING's superior development tools and PLX's innovative IOP 480 PowerPC I/O Processor technology together to achieve a superior fit for telecom, networking and industrial computing. The tool suite — made up of TASKING's Embedded Development Environment (EDE), optimized ANSI C/C++ compiler, assembler and CrossView Pro debugger — offers an unprecedented level of integration and I/O performance.

Support for the PLX IOP 480 furthers TASKING's aggressive pursuit of the exploding PowerPC market, which is growing at over 100% annually according to MicroDesign Resources. "In embedded communications applications, cost, space, power consumption and performance are key, and these are all areas in which the IOP 480 excels," observes Laura Horn, TASKING's Product Marketing Manager for 32-bit and DSP products. "By supporting the IOP 480, TASKING yet again strategically positions itself as the Embedded Communications Company."

"TASKING is a premier developer of tools for PowerPC embedded systems used in telecommunications, networking and industrial computing," said Donna Becker, manager of the PLX Partner Program. "By coupling TASKING tools with the IOP 480 and IOP 480RDK reference design kit, developers gain the resources they need to develop advanced PowerPC embedded systems for the emerging communications infrastructure."

Recognizing the complexity of embedded communications applications, TASKING designed its tool suite to shorten the debugging process through faster problem identification. Graphical data analysis provides convenient visual diagrams for large data sets, enabling developers to easily detect and analyze errors in the input signal. Using the enhanced register windows, developers can group registers into meaningful sets, such as general purpose, floating point or UART, and display only critical registers. With BubbleSpy technology, designers quickly and easily identify variable contents simply by moving a mouse over the source window. Through these graphical features, developers can easily identify problems and performance bottlenecks.

As the industry's first I/O processor incorporating a PowerPC core, the IOP 480 brings superior integration and I/O performance to embedded systems and PCI adapter card designs. Offering extensive functionality and flexibility, the IOP 480 includes a 32-bit, 33-MHz PCI bus, a flexible 32-bit, 66-MHz local bus, PCI V2.2 specification, power management and CompactPCI hot swap support.

As a charter member of the PLX Partner Program, TASKING gains access to design resources on a wide range of PCI development tools, ensuring that TASKING can tightly integrate its tool suite with the IOP technology, securing the cutting edge in embedded communications solutions.

Availability:
TThe TASKING IOP 480 Tool Suite, including EDE, a C/C++ Compiler and the CrossView Pro debugger, is available immediately directly from TASKING. The IOP 480 I/O Processor and IOP 480RDK reference design kit, complete with an evaluation package of TASKING's PowerPC tools for the IOP 480, are available directly from PLX. Release notes and readme files can be downloaded from the technical support area of TASKING's web site (www.tasking.com/support).

About TASKING
TASKING, the Embedded Communications Company, brings together the software technology needed to compete in the embedded communications era. TASKING's award-winning integrated development environment, compiler, debugger, embedded Internet and RTOS offerings support a wide range of DSPs and 8-, 16- and 32-bit microprocessors and microcontrollers for all areas of embedded communications. TASKING, founded in 1974, is a privately held company with headquarters in Dedham, Massachusetts, and engineering, sales and support offices in San Jose, California, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK. TASKING's 100,000 licensed users include the world's leading telecom, datacom, wireless and peripheral manufacturers. More information about TASKING can be found at http://www.tasking.com and www.embeddedcommunications.com.

About PLX Technology
PLX Technology Inc. (www.plxtech.com), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., is a publicly traded, worldwide supplier of high-performance integrated circuits, software and reference design tools for the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus market. PLX's PCI I/O Accelerator chips and I/O Processors are designed into a wide variety of applications including: embedded PCI communication systems, such as networking routers and switches; personal computer, server and workstation PCI adapter boards; and industry-standard PCI implementations such as CompactPCI and PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC).

TASKING, the TASKING logo, The Embedded Communications Company and BubbleSpy are trademarks of TASKING. All other trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.