CMX announces CMX-MicroNet Networking stack for 8- and 16-Bit Processors

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John Rodrigues
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CMX Systems, Inc.
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Framingham, MA 01702
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jr@cmx.com

CMX ANNOUNCES CMX-MicroNet^TM NETWORKING STACK FOR 8- AND 16-BIT PROCESSORS

FRAMINGHAM, MA., February 28, 1999 – CMX Systems announced today the release of CMX-MicroNet™, a new TCP/IP stack for the 8-/16-bit embedded design market. CMX-MicroNet is the first commercial offering that provides true TCP/IP capabilities for 8-bit and 16-bit microprocessors, microcomputers, and digital signal processors.

CMX Systems, long known for its CMX-RTX™ Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS) for most 8-/16-/32-bit processors has taken its expertise in developing software products tailored to fit in extremely small amounts of memory and carefully developed a new TCP/IP stack that will work with virtually all 8- and 16-bit processors and use only 1,894 bytes (Core + UDP/IP) to 11,197 bytes (Core + TCP/IP + PPP + Modem + HTTP Web Server + Virtual File) of ROM, depending upon the processor and configuration. This is a size decrease of at least an order of magnitude from any other commercially available TCP/IP stack. Some vendors have recently released TCP/IP capabilities that put a small agent on a processor and require that a PC or Gateway be attached to the processor to achieve network communication, but CMX-MicroNet is the first system that allows TCP/IP and other protocols to be run natively on the processors, thereby enhancing design flexibility and cost effectiveness.

"CMX-MicroNet heralds a new era in embedded systems networking design," said Chuck Behrmann, President and CEO of CMX. "Most developers using the popular 8- and 16-bit processors had given up hope of ever achieving networked communication with their products because the early stacks were simply too big. Having these protocols running natively on the processor means that they now have an economical solution to networking, especially for devices that will be running in remote locations."

CMXMicroNet can operate stand alone or in conjunction with an RTOS. It provides support for TCP, PPP, UDP, SLIP, IP, and HTTP Web Server. Connectivity is currently supported by Dial Up or Direct connection. CMX is planning to release additional support for FTP, TFTP, SMTP, and POP3. No proprietary protocols, gateways, or hardware is required to use the system. Currently, CMX-MicroNet runs natively on the 8051 and Atmel AVR series of 8-bit processors and the Hitachi 300H, Infineon 80C16x, Mitsubishi M16C, and Philips XA series of 16-bit processors. As with all of its products, CMX has priced the system economically enough to be used by virtually any company, no matter its size. Pricing starts at US $5,500.00 for the base system.

Since its inception in 1990, CMX Company has focused on providing its customers with all of the tools needed to program their embedded applications. The company's core business is to develop and support real-time multi-tasking operating systems (RTOS's) for a wide variety of 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-bit microcomputers, microprocessors, and digital signal processors. The company's CMX-RTX Real-Time Multi-Tasking Operating System supports more than 35 processor families and over 30 C-compiler vendors. CMX also develops and supports products that enhance the user's ability to create, test and debug application code, including CMXKAware™, CMXBug™, and CMXTracker™. CMX TCP/IP™ a ROM-able, full-featured TCP/IP stack for 16- and 32-bit processors is also sold by the company. In addition to developing RTOS's, debugging tools, and networking software, CMX also distributes a wide variety of C tools including compilers, assemblers, linkers, librarians, simulators and ROM debuggers from many well-known manufacturers.