Advanced Product Development and Information Technology

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Leading Product Development Firm Offers Cutting-Edge Compact PCITM Technology Development Kit To Reduce Time-to-Market for Data Communications Industry

Newton, Mass., October 29, 1998 - Kalman Saffran Associates (KSA), a leading developer of state-of-the-art products for the data communications, telecommunications and interactive/CATV industries, today announced the availability of CPCI QuikSwapTM, a hot swap development kit for the data communications industry. By using KSA's innovative hot swap design in building block form, communications companies can beat competition and bring products requiring high system availability or dynamic hardware reconfigurability to market in record time.

CompactPCI® (CPCI) is the next generation standard for plug-in circuit cards and backplanes for industrial electronic equipment, which can range from computers to data networking routers, to electronic and medical instruments, to telecommunications systems. CPCI offers the next generation of speed, performance, cost and power savings over older technologies such as VME bus. It is a variant of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus used extensively in modern Personal Computers (PCs). To use the CompactPCI technology in high reliability systems, however, it is necessary to be able to insert and remove plug-in circuit boards with the system powered up and operational, a function called "hot swapping". A leader in this technology, KSA has produced an innovative solution for CompactPCI in the form of computer models, electronic circuitry and software that enable hot swapping.

The CPCI QuikSwap development kit contains a complete technology solution and building blocks, and includes:

· Bus Isolation Circuits and Control
· Power Management Circuits (Soft Start, Power Sequencing)
· Simulations and SPICE Models Relevant to Hot Swap Including: Backplanes, PCI Drivers and Receivers, Connectors and Bus Isolators
· Design Rules for Hot-Swap Hardware Design
· Signaling Methods for Card Insertion/Removal
· Pin Sequencing Methods
· Software Architecture and Hot-Swap Services Support for UNIX, Windows NT and pSOS

The CPCI QuikSwap development kit is available for industrial computer applications.

Pricing and Availability:

The CPCI QuikSwap development kit is offered at $175,000 and is available now. Application interface and customization (NRE) can be ordered at additional cost. Licensing and terms can also be arranged. For more information: Contact Us

About Kalman Saffran Associates - Established in 1978, Kalman Saffran Associates (KSA) is a leading OEM product development firm that rapidly creates innovative products for premier companies in the data communications, telecommunications and interactive/CATV industries. To ensure success, KSA applies a proven, advanced engineering methodology to all projects. KSA has a staff of more than 100, including engineers specializing in today's "building block" technologies such as SONET/SDH, ATM, xDSL, fiber optics, MPEG and PCI. KSA has designed a CompactPCI hot swap solution and is licensing that solution to communications companies looking to bring hot swap capable products to market quickly. Additionally, KSA offers MPEG-2, and SONET/SDH technology licenses. KSA's clients include industry leaders such as AT&T, Lucent, Nortel, Cisco Systems, 3COM, Scientific-Atlanta, PictureTel, Hewlett Packard, Alcatel, Compaq and Motorola, among many others. For further information, visit KSA on the World Wide Web at http://www.ksa1.com.

We will be pleased to assist your product development efforts. For more information: Contact Us