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MontaVista Linux Powers Portable Electric Medical Device

Linux Systems Software Platform Provides Real-Time Capability at a Lower Cost

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and PARIS, July 7, 2004 — MontaVista Software, Inc., today announced that Brime Italia Srl, a technology consultancy that helps its customers develop turnkey products, has chosen MontaVista ® Linux ® Professional Edition as the operating system (OS) for the new BIAC Portable Medical Electric Muscle Stimulator.

The BIAC portable electric muscle stimulator is distributed in three versions. The basic version is for the home consumer market and is named "ACTION101." The version for the professional fitness market (i.e. fitness and beauty centers) is named "ENERGY101." The most complete version is named "THERAPY101" and is designed for the rehabilitation market.

The muscle stimulator is a low power, battery powered device, which incorporates six channels for therapeutic electrical stimulation, as well as a high-resolution color graphic interface with a touch screen, a multimedia card, Bluetooth connectivity, stereo sound, and optional analogue and digital inputs for bio-medical sensors.

“From the start, our project was cost driven. We went through most of the popular proprietary embedded operating systems but they had high development costs,” said Marco Raimondi, software project leader, Brime Italia.

“We decided to use Linux and picked MontaVista Linux because it had great real-time support and was the only Linux development platform, at the time, which fully supported the Intel XScale processor family,” added Gabriele De Natale, Hardware Project Leader, Brime Italia.

This portable medical device is the first product in its category to provide a user-friendly graphic interface and sophisticated features for healthcare professionals. In addition, it is the first to integrate electrical stimulation, data acquisition from bio-medical sensors, and closed-loop control in one instrument.

“For this high performance electronic stimulator from BIAC, Brime Italia needed a software base that was robust enough to support the product’s rich functionality,” said Stéphane Deruelle, sales director, Western Europe, MontaVista Software. “In addition, MontaVista Linux helped Brime Italia meet the high performance and low power requirements that such complex medical devices demand.”

The Portable Medical Electric Muscle Stimulator was developed for BIAC Srl. BIAC has been involved in the production of electronic equipment since 1981.

Key Factors in the Selection of MontaVista Linux:
According to Brime Italia, the following requirements led it to move from a proprietary system to MontaVista Linux:

  • Commercial-grade Linux software platform
  • Real-time responsiveness
  • Lower overall development costs

MontaVista Linux Professional Edition
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition (Pro) is an industry leading industry-leading comprehensive embedded operating system and cross development environment. It includes a modern OS featuring real-time functionality, multi-process capabilities and multi-threaded remote debugging, with extensive bundled software components including rich networking. Pro targets more than 25 processors from nine leading architectures and supports more than 100 boards offering developers great freedom to choose the elements for their development environment, which, in effect, allows them to speed cutting-edge products to market faster and at a lower cost. Pro also incorporates MontaVista DevRocket™, a powerful integrated development environment that delivers state-of-the-art development tools.

Availability
The Portable Medical Electric Muscle Stimulator is currently available from BIAC Srl.

For more information, visit www.brime.it.

MontaVista Linux Professional Edition 3.1 is available as a product subscription through MontaVista Software and its worldwide distribution channels. MontaVista Linux product subscriptions provide developer teams with the MontaVista Linux kernel, deployment components, utilities, development tools, software updates, access to the MontaVista Zone (customer resource portal), comprehensive technical support a nd hands-on Linux training classes.

About Brime Italia
Brime Italia Srl is a consultancy company, and is part of the AssystemBrime Group (www.asystembrime.com). Brime Italia Srl supports its customers by helping them develop turnkey products for a variety of industries. The group AssystemBrime is listed on the Euronext stock market, Paris. The symbols are: BRIM (Bloomberg), BRIF.LN (Reuters).

About MontaVista Software
MontaVista Software is a leading global supplier of systems software and development tools for intelligent connected devices and associated infrastructure. MontaVista empowers software developers by providing Open Source GNU/Linux-based software solutions. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system pioneer James Ready, MontaVista offers a family of products that address software developer needs encompassing applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer electronics. MontaVista products include MontaVista Linux Professional, Consumer Electronics and Carrier Grade Editions. MontaVista DevRocket, a powerful integrated development environment, delivers state-of-the-art development tools across all product Editions. MontaVista Graphics offers a rich GUI development tools platform.

Headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, in Sunnyvale, Calif., MontaVista Software is a privately held company funded by leading investors such as Alloy Ventures, China Development Industrial Bank, RRE Ventures, US Venture Partners, WR Hambrecht + Co., as well as IBM, Infineon Ventures, Intel Capital, Panasonic (Matsushita), Samsung Ventures America, Siemens Venture Capital, Sony, Toshiba America and Yamaha Corporation. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit www.mvista.com.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. MontaVista and DevRocket are trademarks or registered trademarks of MontaVista Software, Inc. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

Contacts:

Brime Italia
Marco Raimondi
Via A.F. Stella 5,
20125 Milano - Italia
Tel: +39 026 714191
E-mail: marco.raimondi@brime.it

MontaVista Software
Joe Samagond
Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications
MontaVista Software Inc.
Phone: (408) 328-9234
E-mail: jsamagond@mvista.com

Patricia Colby
PR Strategy and Business Development
Pacifico Inc.
Phone: (408) 293-8600 ext. 340
E-mail: pcolby@pacifico.com
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