RTOS-Loaded Micro Platform Enters Home Gateway Mart

A small-outline plug-in card, the Ignite Micro Platform conforms to Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) standards and executes Java as its native language. It is poised to tap the market for home gateways, handheld Internet products, set-top boxes, and other consumer electronic products—the Java portion of this market is expected to exceed 10 million units in 2002 and to continue expanding at a rapid pace over the next several years.
The micro-platform packs a 32-bit microprocessor based on the company's Removed Oper-and Set Computing (ROSC) architecture. Actually the core device has dual processors—an instruction processing unit and an I/O processor—plus a DMA controller, interrupt controller, and a memory interface unit. The ROSC architecture allows use of 8-bit instructions and is said to require half the support memory of an equivalent RISC design.
The micro platform comes pre-loaded with WindRiver's VxWorks RTOS and support package, Sun Microsystems's PersonalJava suite and its tools, and the company's vxPresso for integrating their operation. Licenses for the software are also included.
OEMs wanting to move into the home gateway market can use the Ignite platform for doing evaluation and prototyping work and then license the IP and toolset when they want to integrate the technology more deeply into their end-product designs.