Terra Soft to Provide IBM PowerPC 970FX Evaluation Board Support Package

Loveland, Colorado -- 01 April 2004 -- Terra Soft Solutions, Inc., the leading developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions, today announced it will provide an Evaluation Platform Board Support Package for the IBM PowerPC 970FX.

An 'evaluation board' is traditionally offered by CPU manufacturers to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) who desire to use the CPU in a new computer design. This board demonstrates the key features of the CPU and accompanying bridge chip, providing the OEM a template to bring a new product to market quickly and cost-effectively.

The Terra Soft Solutions Board Support Package (BSP) addresses each of the on-board features and functions of the eval board. Built upon the proven Yellow Dog Linux operating system foundation is a modified Anaconda graphical installer and instructions for net-booting and installation; complete development tool set for seamless code migration from an Apple development workstation to the BSP, and support package with additional support from Terra Soft available.

"We are proud to be embraced by IBM at this level, trusted and enabled to play a significant role in the deployment of IBM PowerPC 970FX solutions. Central to our work with IBM is Yellow Dog Linux, therefore we believe our OS will play a key role in the future of many IBM 970-based OEM solutions as it does now for several G4-based vendors. We are pleased to be involved with IBM at this early stage and look forward to supporting all things 970FX," states Kai Staats, co-founder and CEO Terra Soft Solutions.

The IBM 970FX Evaluation Platform boasts dual PowerPC 970FX processors, a full size ATX motherboard with PLX HT7520 HyperTransport tunnel; on-board IDE, Gigabit ethernet, and dual PCI-X slots. The SMSC LPC47M260 Super I/O Device and PowerPC 405EP service processor provide Flash interfaces, DOC, and an intelligent system controller capable of hosting LinuxBIOS.

"The support of companies like Terra Soft can help further the success of the PowerPC 970," said Ray Bryant, director of PowerPC products, IBM Systems & Technology Group.

Due to the robust design of this evaluation board and complete offerings of the Yellow Dog Linux BSP, end-users too may find the IBM 970FX Evaluation Platform to be well suited for code development, cluster computing, or for use in unique and demanding operational environments.

The IBM 970FX Eval BSP will soon be available from the Terra Soft Store.


About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
Terra Soft is a leading developer of integrated solutions for PowerPC, an Apple Authorized Proprietary Solutions Provider, and an Integrator-VAR for IBM and Momentum Computer. Yellow Dog Linux has boosted viability of Linux on PowerPC microprocessors with support for desktop, embedded, and HPC systems. Yellow Dog Linux was the first OS to function on the IBM Power 3 and 4 series systems and more recently enabled 64-bit memory addressing and double-precision calculations on the Apple G5 product line.

For more information, visit www.terrasoftsolutions.com

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