General Software Announces Fastest BIOS Boot Available for Microsoft Windows Vista(TM) and Hybrid Hard Disk Drives

Market Wire, April, 2006

General Software, Inc., the leading supplier of x86 firmware solutions to the custom device marketplace, today announced industry leading boot performance for its flagship product Embedded BIOS® 2000. Working with Microsoft, General Software has successfully delivered a fully functional mobile device BIOS with record fast boot times. These boot times are critically important for the upcoming release of Microsoft Windows Vista(TM) operating system and the new Hybrid Hard Disk Drive technology that will be prevalent in new mobile devices introduced this year.

Using a standard commercial PC motherboard with a mobile processor and chipset, General Software was able to create a BIOS implementation to optimally support the new drive technology and Windows Vista Beta 2. Manufacturers of the next generation of mobile devices running Windows Vista will require a fast BIOS implementation to deliver on the performance of this latest development in disk drive technology.

"By completing all essential tasks of the BIOS in less than one second, our BIOS boots Windows Vista faster than any BIOS to date enabling improved user experience for suspend and resume," said Steve Dearden, VP of Sales and Marketing at General Software. "The technology developed by Microsoft in Windows Vista to support Hybrid Hard Disk Drives from manufacturers such as Samsung requires a new approach to optimizing BIOS boot speed. Only General Software's BIOS has been architected to make these BIOS improvements immediately available for mobile device manufacturers."

About Embedded BIOS® 2000

Embedded BIOS 2000 is the leading BIOS SDK for embedded x86 designs, with over 850 OEM-customizable configuration parameters, support for multiple embedded operating systems, and support for major OS and hardware initiatives. Embedded BIOS 2000 addresses the entire lifecycle of products, from board bring-up, configuration prototyping, testing with system diagnostics, and product manufacturing to in-field diagnostics and software reload. Features include an integrated debugger; quick boot; console redirection; highly configurable POST; manufacturing mode; ROM, RAM, and Flash file systems; support for a host of industry initiatives; and much more. Embedded BIOS 2000 supports industry-standard operating systems that run on PC-compatible hardware, including the full spectrum of Windows, Linux, and real-time operating systems.

About Firmbase® SDK

The Firmbase® Software Development Kit is used by developers to create firmware applications that harness Firmbase Technology. Firmbase Technology is General Software's patented 32-bit firmware infrastructure that contributes the surety and trust expected from firmware applications. A non-stop SMM envelope keeps firmware applications running, even when the OS and user application have failed, or are missing. Firmbase Technology is ROM-resident and provides a chain of trust from power-on to OS boot and beyond. It supplies the user-level security for the BIOS and for firmware applications which do not run under OS control.

About the Firmware Application Suite(TM)

The Firmware Application Suite is an integrated set of prewritten and tested applications employing Firmbase Technology that provide important device management functions. The applications include Boot Security, for ensuring device and application integrity, Platform Update Facility for manually or remotely installing new firmware, OS or user application images, and a High Availability Monitor which is capable of detecting and responding to OS and user application failures.

About General Software, Inc.

General Software, Inc. provides superior embedded x86 firmware solutions and world-class support for OEM manufacturers of telecommunications, data communications, consumer electronics, dedicated servers, and other specialized computing devices. General Software's well-architected and reliable firmware products reduce risk, speed development, and address embedded OEM product lifecycle needs. For more information about General Software and its embedded firmware, visit www.gensw.com , e-mail sales@gensw.com , or contact David Tobar at 800-850-5755 or 425-576-8300.

Contact: General Software, Inc. Kate Johnsen Tel 425.576.8300 ext 229 Email: Email Contact