[yellowdog-announce] Terra Soft to Provide IBM PowerPC 970FX Evaluation BSP: Press Release 2004 04/01

[Media Relations]

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 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 Terra Soft's Store: 
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/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 http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com

IBM and PowerPC are registered trademarks of International Business Machines 
Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of 
their respective owners.