[yellowdog-announce] Terra Soft Provides HPC System to Lockheed, Navy: Press Release 2003 08/06

[Media Relations]

TERRA SOFT PROVIDES HPC SYSTEM TO LOCKHEED, NAVY

Loveland, Colorado -- 06 August 2003 -- Terra Soft Solutions, Inc., leading 
developer of integrated PowerPC Linux solutions, has been awarded the 
contract to fulfill a unique sonar imaging system for the United States Navy 
through defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

As an Apple Proprietary Solutions Provider and developer of the Yellow Dog 
Linux for PowerPC, Terra Soft Solutions provides a unique, integrated 
turn-key solution to Lockheed Martin which meets the Navy's requirements for 
form-factor, density, performance, and use of Linux.

Since March, Terra Soft has provided software engineering and support services 
which include device driver enhancements, kernel development, tuned firmware 
allowing serial (RS-232) port-based control; performance testing, and 
management of third party engineering and systems integration.

Terra Soft will provide support and development services to the Lockheed 
Martin engineering staff on the units provided under this contract.

Kai Staats, co-founder and CEO of Terra Soft states, "This brings to fruition 
two years of effort with an intense recent six months of research, 
coordination, prototype development and testing -- a great deal of hands-on 
collaboration with the Lockheed Martin engineering team. We are proud to 
implement Yellow Dog Linux in this capacity, to provide a solution trusted by 
both Lockheed Martin and United States Navy."

United States Navy submarines utilize on-board HPC clusters for the realtime 
image processing. These systems are revised and upgraded on a rotational 
basis. Lockheed Martin has chosen to move with the Apple Xserves and Yellow 
Dog Linux. This combination provides a solution twice as dense, less power 
consumptive, and higher performance than the previous solution at a similar 
cost.

"Terra Soft's Red Hat-based OS currently provides an optimal balance of 
open-source flexibility, AltiVec-enhanced performance, and community 
support," states Joe Fanto, lead project engineer for Lockheed Martin.

The full 260 units recently ordered by Lockheed Martin will be delivered by 
the close of October 2003. This marks the largest Apple VAR Xserve sale to 
date.


About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
Terra Soft is a leading developer of integrated solutions for PowerPC and the 
top-selling Apple Authorized Proprietary Solutions Provider. Yellow Dog Linux 
has boosted viability of PowerPC microprocessors with support for desktop, 
embedded, and HPC systems. Black Lab is an advanced, scalable, HPC cluster 
build and management suite.