ARM and Northern Real-Time Applications, NRTA, Announce Embedded RTOS Initiative; Advanced Real-Time Operating System For Deeply Embedded Systems

Business Wire, March 2, 1999

LOS GATOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 1999--ARM (LSE: ARM and NASDAQ: ARMHY) and Northern Real-Time Applications (NRTA) today announced that they are working together to provide an advanced Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) for use in deeply embedded ARM Powered systems. NRTA will offer its SSX5 trueRTOS to customers developing systems based on the ARM7TDMI processor core for automotive, consumer and communications applications requiring high performance and real time predictability.

"Today's developers of automotive electronics systems are looking to 32-bit RISC based solutions to deliver the improvements in safety, performance and drivability their customers are demanding," said Steve Evans, ARM's Director of European Business Development. "SSX5 is a proven RTOS in this exacting environment and the design win successes that NRTA has achieved make SSX5 and the ARM7TDMI RISC core a potent combination for automotive systems."

"The ARM processor family is rapidly becoming the new standard for high performance 32-bit embedded systems," said Dr Ken Tindell, NRTA's CEO. "We designed the SSX5 trueRTOS to provide fully predictable real-time capabilities inside the smallest possible memory footprint. Together, the SSX5 trueRTOS and ARM7TDMI processor deliver an unmatched combination of performance and cost-efficiency."

Engineers from ARM and NRTA are working together to port and optimise the SSX5 RTOS for the ARM7TDMI processor. Each company brings complementary expertise and applications knowledge to meet the needs of the deeply embedded market place. NRTA becomes the latest member of the ARM Partnership, which provides developers with a wide range of proven software, development systems and EDA solutions for ARM based design. NRTA plans to ship the ARM optimized SSX5 RTOS early in Q2 1999.

About ARM

ARM, a leading intellectual property (IP) provider, licenses high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals, and system-chip designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming the volume RISC standard in such markets as portable communications, hand-held computing, multi-media and embedded solutions. ARM serves its growing partnership base from offices in Cambridge and Maidenhead, UK; Los Gatos, California; Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Westborough, MA, USA; Paris, France; Munich, Germany; Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, Korea. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.

About NRTA

NRTA is a York, England company specialising in predictable real-time operating system (RTOS) technology. Under the leadership of world RTOS authority, Dr. Ken Tindell, (who led the team which built the RTOS and networking software for the new Volvo S-80 luxury car), it provides its SSX5 trueRTOS and highly expert consulting services to deliver solutions to critical real-time projects. SSX5 provides true RTOS functionality and the smallest memory footprint on the market, so reducing the cost of silicon especially for high volume production. Unlike other RTOSes, SSX5 supports predictability of timing performance for critical systems, and extremely efficient performance characteristics. SSX5 has been independently benchmarked as the fastest and smallest RTOS, provides exceptionally low overheads, and runs on 32, 16 and 8-bit microcontrollers. Please see more on the company's web site www.ssx5.com.

Note to Editors: ARM and ARM Powered and ARM7TDMI are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders.

"ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and NASDAQ: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM, INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.

NRTA, SSX5 and trueRTOS are trademarks of Northern Real-Time Applications Limited.

This announcement contains "forward-looking statements" including statements concerning plans, future events or performance and underlying assumptions and other statements which are other than statements of historical fact. The Company's actual results for future periods may differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the Company. The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, without limitation, potential for significant fluctuation in and unpredictability of results, the ability of semiconductor partners to manufacture and market microprocessors based on the ARM(R) architecture; the acceptance of ARM technology by systems companies; the availability of development tools, systems software and operating systems; the rapid change in technology in the industry and ARM's ability to develop new products in a timely manner; management of growth; competition from other architectures; general business and economic conditions; the growth in the semiconductor industry; the Company's ability to protect its intellectual property; and ARM's ability to attract and retain employees.