Press Releases

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 17, 2002 — MontaVista Software Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, today announced it has received an equity investment from Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), an independent operating company of Toshiba America, a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation (Toshiba) the global electronics firm.

“As part of Toshiba’s overall strategy to offer complete platform solutions for market segments, such as digital consumer, communication, and high-end embedded applications, we are expanding our collaboration with MontaVista Software to further enhance our platform offering to our customers,” said Farhad Mafie, vice president of the ASSP Business Unit at TAEC. “The MontaVista Linux operating system in conjunction with Toshiba’s high-performance MIPS RISC processors provides a highly competitive solution for many key market segments.”

Based on its platform strategies for focused segments, Toshiba provides a complete hardware and software solution for its customers. MontaVista Linux has been ported to the TMPR3927 and TMPR4927, two of its most popular 32- and 64-bit MIPS-based RISC microprocessors. These processors target devices such as printers, DVDs, game consoles and set-top boxes.

According to a recent market research report from Venture Development Corporation (VDC), consumer electronics is the fastest growing market segment for Linux, at an annual growth rate of 49 percent, reaching $149.6 million in shipments by 2006. VDC also estimated that consumer electronics will be the largest segment of the embedded Linux market by 2006 with 43.2 percent of total revenue of $346 million.

“We welcome the investment from TAEC, a world leader in high-technology electronic products. Leading consumer electronics companies worldwide are making a deliberate and informed move towards adopting Linux for their next-generation products. In such an environment MontaVista Linux is increasingly the systems software of choice,” said Jim Ready, CEO and president, MontaVista Software and embedded industry pioneer. “OEMs in these markets are demanding the benefits of MontaVista Linux -- lower development costs, faster time-to-market and a superior level of functionality for their products.”

The next generation of consumer products requires improved performance, lower power consumption, flexible and scalable architectures, robustness and openness. The feature-rich MontaVista Linux Professional Edition addresses these requirements and is already being deployed for a wide variety of embedded application designs in consumer electronics.

TAEC joins a list of high-profile corporate investors, including IBM, Intel, Sony, Yamaha and Panasonic who have invested in MontaVista Software this year.

About MontaVista Linux
MontaVista Linux Professional Edition is one of the most widely used embedded Linux operating systems and development platforms. It includes an impressive array of cross-development tools for system and application code, unparalleled processor and board support, native real-time performance in Linux, and hundreds of deployable utilities, libraries, drivers, and other run-time components. Earlier this year, MontaVista Linux Professional Edition was named “Best Embedded Linux Solution” at the New York Linux World and Expo. The product received the “Electron d’Or” award for “Best Embedded Tool and Development Solution for 2002” from the prestigious French publication “Electronique,” and the Readers’ Choice Award for “Favorite Embedded Solution 2002” from the American magazine “Linux Journal.”

About TAEC
Combining quality and flexibility with design engineering expertise, TAEC brings a breadth of advanced, next-generation technologies to its customers. This broad offering includes semiconductors, flash memory-based storage solutions, optical communication devices, displays and rechargeable batteries for the computing, wireless, networking, automotive and digital consumer markets.

TAEC is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba, the second largest semiconductor company worldwide in terms of global sales for the year 2001 according to Gartner/Dataquest’s Worldwide Semiconductor Market Share Ranking. Toshiba is a world leader in high-technology products with more than 300 major subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide. For additional company and product information, please visit TAEC’s web site at chips.toshiba.com. For technical inquiries, please e-mail Tech.Questions@taec.toshiba.com.

About MontaVista Software
MontaVista Software is a leading global supplier of systems software for intelligent connected devices and their associated infrastructure, for applications ranging from communications infrastructure to consumer electronics. MontaVista powers the embedded revolution by providing GNU/Linux based open-source systems software solutions. Founded in 1999 by real-time operating system (RTOS) pioneer James Ready, MontaVista Software’s principal products include MontaVista™ Linux® Professional Edition and MontaVista™ Linux® Carrier Grade Edition. The Professional Edition comprises a Linux-based embedded source and binary distribution, cross development environments, and a versatile set of tools for the x86/IA-32, PowerPC, StrongARM, MIPS, SH, ARM, XScale, Xtensa, OMAP and other microprocessor architectures. The Carrier Grade Edition is a next-generation high availability product that is the first commercial off-the-shelf Linux (COTS) platform for telecommunications and carrier-grade applications. MontaVista Software also provides several complementary technology products addressing specific customer needs, such as Java development and runtime, powerful graphics capabilities and more.

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, US Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, WR Hambrecht + Co., IBM, Intel Capital, Panasonic, Sony, Yamaha and Toshiba America. For more information about MontaVista Software, please visit http://www.mvista.com, email to info@mvista.com or call
(408) 328-9200.

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

Contacts

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 x340
E-mail: pcolby@pacifico.com

TAEC:
Deborah Chalmers, Sr. Marcom Manager,
System LSI Group,
Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.
(408) 526-2454
Deborah.chalmers@taec.toshiba.com