eCosCentric announces eCosPro^® for NXP Nexperia™ set-top box semiconductor solutions and introduces the high reliability Multimedia Filesystem

BIRMINGHAM, UK -- October 11, 2006 -- eCosCentric Limited, the eCos and RedBoot experts and member of NXP Semiconductor's Nexperia™ Home Partner Program for Independent Software Vendors, today announced the availability of eCosPro^® for the Nexperia STB220 set-top box reference solution and eCosPro-MMFS, the high performance Multimedia Filesystem. The STB220 solution will be distributed with an eCosPro Starter Kit allowing end-users to rapidly evaluate eCos and begin building applications based upon it. The eCosPro Starter Kit is a commercial grade distribution of the eCos RTOS for deeply embedded systems, including a GNU-based compiler/debugger toolchain, graphical eCos Configuration Tool and certified RedBoot binaries. eCosCentric also offers a direct upgrade to the full eCosPro Developer's Kit.

"It has been exciting to work with NXP Semiconductors to provide eCosPro for their latest generation of Nexperia solutions that target high-end applications" said Daniel Morris, Sales & Marketing Director at eCosCentric. "Creating the highly reliable Multimedia Filesystem enables us to meet the performance demands and usage patterns of innovative consumer-grade appliances that are being built around STB220 silicon solutions."

"The availability of an eCosPro Starter Kit with NXP's set-top box system solutions will enable OEMs and ODMs to quickly bring to market personal video recorders and dual-view set-top boxes," said Menno Kleingeld, Senior Marketing Director for the NXP Semiconductors business line Set-Top-Box & Home Media Devices. "The Multimedia Filesystem will enhance our STB system solution with simultaneous streaming and recording of multimedia content, improving the consumers' entertainment experience."

NXP's STB220 system solution, built around the Nexperia PNX8330 MPEG2/4 source decoder, is targeted at state-of-the art entertainment applications, such as Personal Video Recorders (PVR) and decoders for dual terrestrial, satellite and cable reception. Each STB220 reference solution (with PVR and dual decoding) will be distributed with an eCosPro Starter Kit, including eCosPro-MMFS. The Multimedia Filesystem was designed to support continuous media intensive applications for consumer applications such as PVR and Video JukeBoxes. Multiple data streams may be recorded simultaneously, even during stream replay and the file system can be configured to make the most efficient use of the underlying hard disk. Advanced features such as power-on recovery and data integrity checking are included to cater for anticipated real-life usage patterns. STB-specific software stacks that have been validated by NXP and its IP partners on the earlier Nexperia PNX831x devices with eCosPro may be swiftly migrated to the PNX833x using the uniform toolset provided by eCosCentric along with the stable APIs presented by eCosPro.

About eCosPro

eCosPro is a stable, fully tested and supported version of the eCos open source real-time operating system and RedBoot bootstrap firmware. The eCosPro Developer's Kit is a distribution of eCosPro with commercial support & advice, prebuilt eCos host tools, compiler toolchains, full documentation, Eclipse-based integrated development environment to streamline eCos application development (including graphical debugger), C++ runtime (including Standard Template Library) as well as profiling, code coverage and memory allocation debugging tools. Third party components certified with eCosPro include a Java virtual machine, an in-memory database, graphical user interfaces, CANopen, and USB 2.0 compliant host, device & OTG stacks.

About eCosCentric

Founded in April 2002, eCosCentric is the leading provider of eCos and RedBoot support, training, development and consulting services worldwide. Staffed by the original eCos creators and highly experienced embedded system and software engineers, eCosCentric provides complete solutions consisting of run-time systems, complementary host tools and certified third party applications.

About NXP

NXP is a top 10 semiconductor company founded by Philips more than 50 years ago. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company has 37,000 employees working in 20 countries across the world. NXP creates semiconductors, system solutions and software that deliver better sensory experiences in mobile phones, personal media players, TVs, set-top boxes, identification applications, cars and a wide range of other electronic devices. News from NXP is located at www.NXP.com.

Nexperia is a trademark of NXP Semiconductors

For further details visit http://www.ecoscentric.com/ecospro.shtml or contact eCosCentric for pricing and availability.