Infineon Technologies Teams With Wind River To Offer Turn-key Solution For Fully Managed Layer 2 Ethernet Switches

May 2, 2001 | Market News

Joint News Release from Infineon Technologies and Wind River Systems

Alameda, Calif./Munich, Germany – May 2, 2001 – Infineon Technologies AG (DAX/NYSE: IFX), a leading supplier of communications integrated circuits, and Wind River Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: WIND), a leading provider of software and services for connected smart devices, today announced a partnership to provide network system OEMs with fully managed Layer 2 switch solutions. Through a value-added reseller (VAR) agreement, Infineon will provide a turn-key solution for high performance, compact switches targeted at network applications for small-to-medium businesses, based on its 26 port AR2224 Ethernet switch-on-a-chip and Wind River Tornado® for Managed Switches (TMS) 2.0 embedded software.

Under the terms of the agreement, Infineon Technologies is authorized to directly license the Wind River software to its LAN switching customers. By providing OEMs with the necessary building blocks to create a complete switch – including the AR2224 switch-on-a-chip, production reference designs, and the embedded TMS 2.0 software in binary form, Infineon offers a Layer 2 solution that reduces the customer’s time-to-market and development costs while assuring quality and support from two of the industry’s leading suppliers. The agreement reinforces Infineon’s commitment to offer complete LAN switching solutions.

“We believe that Layer 2 switches will be the largest growing segment of the 120 million port LAN market by 2003,” said Daniel Wong, a vice president in Infineon’s communications group and the general manager of the LAN Business Unit. “By bundling the Wind River software with our switch-on-a-chip, we’re providing a very attractive and competitive solution to companies building systems for this high-growth market. One that will allow for a low cost, low-component count and low power implementation of managed switches for enterprise LAN and MDU/MTU applications.”

“Wind River is pleased to work with leading manufacturers of Ethernet switching devices like Infineon to integrate TMS 2.0 and provide OEMs with the necessary tools to rapidly develop highly functional and efficient Ethernet Switches,” said Dave Fraser, vice president of general manager of Wind River’s Networks business unit. “Through the Wind River VAR agreement, customers can purchase directly from Infineon a best-in-class integrated Ethernet switching development solution including all the protocols and applications necessary to quickly build Ethernet switches and routers, simplifying the development process.”

About the AR2224


The highly integrated AR2224 features 24 10/100 (FE) ports and two Gigabit (GE) ports and is designed to sustain full-duplex wire speed traffic on all ports simultaneously. The Gigabit links can be used as uplinks or for stacking. The chip also offers trunking capability, up to eight FE links or two 1G links can be aggregated together; multiple trunks per chip are supported.

About Tornado for Managed Switches


Wind River’s Tornado for Managed Switches 2.0 combines the most complete suite of layer 2 and layer 3 protocols and applications with the Tornado integrated development environment (IDE) and the VxWorks® real-time operating system (RTOS). Fully integrated with Infineon’s AR2224 Ethernet switch-on-a-chip, the TMS 2.0 software allows developers to address differentiating features instead of hardware/software compatibility and bring-up issues.

Availability


Infineon is among the first companies authorized to license TMS 2.0 directly to its customers. Part number AR2224-M can be used by system OEMs to order AR2224 plus TMS 2.0 embedded software in binary form. AR2224-M is priced at US$80 in quantities of one thousand and will be available for customer shipment in June. A reference design using a 32-bit PowerPC® microcontroller with embedded TMS software is also available for customer evaluation. Reference designs supporting other 32-bit processors are in development.

About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smartcards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2000 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 7.28 billion with about 29,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

About Wind River


Wind River, www.infineon.comwww.windriver.com, is a worldwide leader in embedded software and services for creating connected smart devices. Wind River provides software development tools, real-time operating systems, and advanced connectivity for use in products throughout the Internet, telecommunications and data communications, digital imaging, digital consumer electronics, networking, medical, computer peripherals, automotive, industrial automation and control, and aerospace/defense markets. Wind River is How Smart Things Think™. Founded in 1983, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations in sixteen countries worldwide.


Wind River Systems, the Wind River Systems Logo, Tornado, VxWorks and How Smart Things Think are registered trademarks or trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc.

Information Number

INFCOM200105.076e