Wind River Systems (Nasdaq: WIND) today announced a fully integrated Embedded Internet(TM) package for bringing the advantages of the Internet to embedded computers such as smart phones, network computers, networked printers, cable modems, and switches. With the addition of the new Tornado(TM) for Embedded Internet components, Wind River is the first vendor to provide a common technology to build and deploy products throughout the Internet including its infrastructure, servers, and smart appliances.

"The smart phone and network computer have grabbed the attention of the media as the new frontier of the Internet," said Jerry Fiddler, co-founder and chairman of Wind River Systems. "But the Embedded Internet Device (EID) is any embedded product that uses Internet technology -- printers, medical devices, oscilloscopes, as well as smart phones and web-enabled television sets. They are thin clients and thin servers. Tornado for Embedded Internet makes it easy to add Internet connectivity to any of these products."

Internet Time-to-Market

Despite the complexity of developing embedded software -- target memory constraints, resource limitations, or real-time requirements -- EIDs need to be developed in "Internet time" -- rapid product cycles of less than a year from start of product definition to first product shipment. To meet these stringent time-to-market requirements, the creator of an EID needs to add value as quickly as possible, and not waste time "reinventing the wheel" in areas that are not specifically part of the product differentiation. Tornado for Embedded Internet offers all the necessary components to build an EID in Internet Time.

"The technology for bringing the Internet to the embedded world is fairly common," continued Fiddler. "The key is architecting the technology specifically for an embedded device. It needs to be easily configurable, scalable, and portable and supplied in a manner that helps developers meet their time-to-market requirements. Wind River was the first vendor to bring the Internet Protocols (TCP/IP) to the embedded market. Tornado for Embedded Internet is an extension of this expertise and a turnkey solution for any embedded developer."

Components of EID Connectivity

No two Embedded Internet designs are exactly the same -- there are different hardware platforms, different feature sets, different connectivity requirements, etc. Therefore, no single technology, except the embedded operating system, is universally appropriate. The key is to provide an integrated solution that can be configured to the specific device. The main software components which act as a common base of functionality for most EIDs are:

* Embedded HTTP server for posting information to the Internet/intranet

* Web browser for viewing information on the World Wide Web/intranet

* Java support for developing "write once, run anywhere" devices

* Graphic components for displaying information to the Internet/intranet user

* Drivers for specialized hardware

* Networking protocol support for communicating across the Internet/intranet

"The most visible technologies within the World Wide Web have been browsers and Java, but it's the combination of these technologies with the other components -- less glamorous but perhaps even more important -- that make the embedded Internet come to life," said Fiddler. "Tornado for Embedded Internet meets all these requirements, making it the most appropriate software package for the widest range of embedded devices."

Tornado for Embedded Internet includes:

* Wind(R) Web Server, an embedded HTTP server for supporting standard HTTP functions, providing dynamic information, and form handling. With Wind Web Server, any EID can provide an easy-to-use interface to the network, and can be monitored and controlled in ways that can dramatically improve the abilities of a traditional embedded computer. Any browser can be the user interface to the EID.

* Device Mosaic(TM) browser. Modular by design, this native browser has a scalable feature set that makes it easy to build a custom browser for the full range of embedded devices.

* Tornado for Java(R) offers full Java support including the virtual machine and Hot Java Browser. By mapping Java threads to VxWorks tasks, Wind River was able to combine the power of a real-time operating system with the flexibility of Java and still achieve 100% Java-compatibility.

* RtX-WINDOWS(TM) is an extensive graphics package based on the X11 standard API but designed specifically for the EID. It allows designers to use standard GUI builders to create sophisticated application specific user interfaces, combining the advantages of a standard API with performance, portability, and minimal memory requirements.

Tornado for Embedded Internet is integrated with Wind River's award-winning Tornado development environment available for UNIX, Windows(R) 95 and Windows NT(R) host platforms. Tornado's extensive networking support includes TCP/IP BSD version 4.4, DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) for automatic configuration of networking nodes at boot time, DNS (Domain Name Service) for translating URLs into the associated IP addresses, and OSPF and RIPv2 routing protocols. Wind also provides Board Support Packages (BSP) for a broad range of popular evaluation boards and a BSP Porting Kit to assist customers in quickly configuring VxWorks to the hardware platform of their choice. A wide variety of device drivers for graphics, IrDA, CD-ROM, Flash, Audio, etc. can be obtained through Wind River or one of its partners.

Availability

Tornado for Embedded Internet will be available in Q3 '97. Each component is priced separately.

About Wind River Systems, Inc.

Wind River Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated software development tools for real-time embedded applications in the Internet, telecommunications, datacommunications, office automation, networking, computer peripherals, medical, automotive, industrial, aerospace, and multimedia markets. Through the industry's most comprehensive product line and customer support, Wind River enables customers to develop and reuse application software across a variety of products and platforms, shortening development cycles and improving time-to-market. Incorporated in 1983, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California with operations in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Israel, Korea, and Japan and representation worldwide. Wind River reported revenues of 64 million dollars in fiscal year 1997, a 45% increase from FY96.