SUNNYVALE, Calif. and PARIS -- MontaVista Software, Inc., the company powering the embedded revolution, and Acterna Corp., the world's largest provider of test solutions for telecommunications and cable network operators, today announced that MontaVista(R) Linux(R) Professional Edition (Pro) is the chosen operating system for the latest product in Acterna's MTS optical tester line, the recently announced MTS-8000.

The MTS-8000 is designed for field use in both outside plant and central office applications, and is Acterna's most compact and cost-effective solution for optical network testing. With a complete range of testing modules, the MTS-8000 enables full fiber characterization and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) system upgrades. Several major telecommunications operators worldwide currently use Acterna's MTS products, with more than 10,000 field-proven units deployed.

"The proprietary embedded operating environment used previously no longer met our needs for scalability. We evaluated many different RTOSes and decided on MontaVista Linux because of its robustness and versatility," said Olivier Masselin, R&D manager for Acterna's Fiber Optics unit. "MontaVista Software provided us with excellent support and enabled us to minimize software development time. We also appreciated the fact that MontaVista Linux had been validated to work seamlessly with our chosen hardware platform -- the PowerPC 405GPr processor from IBM."

MontaVista Linux Professional Edition is an industry-leading comprehensive embedded operating system and cross development environment and is MontaVista Software's flagship product. Pro provides a common source and binary platform across a broad range of processor architectures. It includes a modern operating system with real-time functionality, and multi-process and multi-threading capabilities, and includes hundreds of bundled software components.

"Telecommunications and cable operators will benefit greatly from the new MTS-8000, especially in terms of increased productivity, and the reduced weight and size of the test equipment itself," said Stephane Deruelle, sales director, Western Europe, MontaVista Software. "We are glad to help Acterna provide its customers with the tools they need to meet changing network-testing requirements and help them gain greater control of test resources and planning."

MontaVista Software was one of the first embedded software companies to develop a Linux-based platform for the IBM PowerPC family of processors, a focus that MontaVista has strongly maintained.

"The IBM PowerPC 405GPr high-frequency, low-power system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor is perfect for this type of telecommunications application," said Ray Bryant, director of PowerPC products, IBM Microelectronics. "The combination of MontaVista Linux and IBM's PowerPC technology provides Acterna with a cost effective and scalable solution that helps them get their product to market quickly."

MontaVista Software Inc.

Acterna Corp.