[yellowdog-announce] Terra Soft Launches IBM 970FX Eval Board Support Package: Press Release 2005 05/26

[yellowdog-announce at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com]

TERRA SOFT LAUNCHES IBM 970FX EVAL PLATFORM BSP

Loveland, Colorado -- 26 May 2005 -- Terra Soft Solutions(R), Inc., the 
leading developer of integrated Power Architecture Linux solutions, today 
launches the Terra Soft Board Support Package for the IBM 970FX Evaluation 
Platform.

The Terra Soft Board Support Package (BSP) addresses the on-board features and 
functions of the IBM 970FX Evaluation Platform ('Maple-D' system board). 
Built upon Terra Soft's 64-bit Yellow Dog Linux v4.0.90 the BSP offers 
installation instructions, a full-featured installer, and a complete tool set 
for both 32- and 64-bit, self-hosted code development. Furthermore, the BSP 
offers seamless code migration to and from Apple PowerPC and IBM Power 
Architecture products running Yellow Dog Linux or Y-HPC.

"The completion of this board support package marks a turning point for Terra 
Soft with movement into a new line of forthcoming IBM Power Architecture 
products. It is our hope and desire that this CPU family continues to grow, 
giving way to diversity in product offerings and improved price/performance 
from multiple OEMs. As this occurs, we will be certain to provide a 
consistent Linux OS for this growing array of products," states Kai Staats, 
CEO Terra Soft Solutions.

The Board Support Package includes a complete Yellow Dog Linux box set, Live 
and Install CD set, and a one-year subscription to YDL.net Pro whereby 
updates to the BSP are available via a private FTP server.

The Board Support Package is immediately available through Terra Soft's 
on-line Store with the purchase of a 2 CPU Y-HPC license: 
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store/


An 'evaluation board' is traditionally offered by CPU manufacturers to 
original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who desire to use the CPU in a new 
computer design. The eval board demonstrates the key features of the CPU and 
accompanying bridge chip; a template to reduce the resources required to 
bring a new product to market.

Also available from Terra Soft, the IBM 970FX Evaluation Platform ('Maple-D' 
system board) 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 Maple-D system board with BSP pre-installed may be ordered through Terra 
Soft's on-line Store: http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/store/ (IBM section)


About Terra Soft Solutions, Inc.
Terra Soft is a leading Integrated Solutions Provider with proven expertise in 
the Power architecture and Linux OS platform. As an Apple Authorized 
Proprietary Solutions Provider and IBM Business Partner, Terra Soft provides 
turnkey and build-to-order portables, desktop workstations, HA servers, and 
HPC clusters. Terra Soft's Y-HPC 64-bit OS and cluster construction suite is 
widely accepted as a preferred platform for Xserve clusters.

For more information, visit www.terrasoftsolutions.com

'IBM' and 'Power' are registered trademarks of International Business Machines 
Corporation. Xserve is a registered trademark of Apple. All other trademarks 
or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.