CMX Offering Low-Cost TCP/IP Connectivity for ZiLOG's eZ80ACCLAIM! and Z8 Encore! Microcontrollers

  

SAN JOSE, Calf. --February 23, 2004-- ZiLOG, a global supplier of 8-bit microcontrollers, and CMX Systems, a Florida-based designer of real-time operating systems (RTOS) and TCP/IP software, announced the availability of the CMX-MicroNet^TM TCP/IP stack and the CMX-RTX^TM RTOS ported to the ZiLOG eZ80Acclaim!^TM and the CMX-Tiny+ RTOS and CMX-MicroNet TCP/IP stack ported to the Z8 Encore!^TM microcontrollers. Both companies said the field-proven products permit designers to develop embedded networking applications with shorter time-to-market than competing solutions.

The new collaboration between ZiLOG and CMX will provide customers an "off-the-shelf" solution for adding low cost TCP/IP connectivity to embedded systems designs. TCP/IP has become a mainstream connectivity solution for embedded systems. Consequently it is becoming increasingly more important to offer a low-cost, reliable TCP/IP stack for popular embedded processors such as the eZ80Acclaim! and Z8 Encore! MCUs.

"The eZ80Acclaim! microcontroller family - with its built-in 10/100 Ethernet and FLASH memory, becomes a complete solution when combined with the CMX-MicroNet & CMX-RTX products. The CMX products compile efficiently and easily in our ZDS developer's suite tool set," commented Michael Gershowitz, director of MicroDevices Product Marketing for ZiLOG. "For extremely low-cost applications, our Z8 Encore! MCUs are very capable, thanks to CMX's tiny memory footprints and high execution speeds of the ZiLOG devices."

CMX-MicroNet is a very small footprint TCP/IP software stack that has been developed to provide Internetworking connectivity tools to designers working with embedded processors. CMX-RTX is a very small and fast real-time operating system targeting embedded applications that require an RTOS. CMX-Tiny+ is a reduced version of CMX-RTX that offers RTOS services for applications with extremely limited ROM/RAM resources. The ZiLOG eZ80Acclaim! and Z8 Encore! microcontrollers provides a highly integrated and cost effective approach to embedded network control environments.

Chuck Behrmann, president and CEO of CMX, said "We are excited that ZiLOG has selected CMX-MicroNet as a networking tool and our CMX RTOSes for these development platforms. We are both in a position now to offer our mutual embedded systems customers a combination of flexibility and ease of use for their embedded networking development solutions."

About the eZ80Acclaim!
The eZ80F91 microcontroller from the eZ80Acclaim! family of MCUs is based on the enhanced industry standard Z80 architecture. It features 50MHz operations and 16Mbytes of linear memory addressing. The eZ80F91 has on-chip 10/100 Ethernet MAC and DMAs that handle network data packets efficiently. This yields optimized network throughput and better reliability. Overall system costs is reduced due to integration of 256Kbytes of Flash memory and 16Kbytes of RAM, which easily handle the CMX software solutions with no external memory requirements.

About the Z8 Encore!
The Z8 Encore! microcontrollers includes five configurations with up to 64KB (up to 512K bits) of high-speed Flash. Features include the 20 MHz eZ8 CPU core, up to 4KB of linear register SRAM, and a comprehensive suite of peripherals including an on-chip DMA controller; up to 12 channels of 10-bit A/D; SPI; I²C; two 9-bit UART ports with integrated Infrared Data Association (IrDA)-compliant encoder/decoders; up to four 16-bit counter timers, each with capture and PWM capability; and a single-pin, On-Chip Debugger. This rich feature set provides the designer with flexibility and ease of system integration.

About CMX-MicroNet
CMX-MicroNet is a scaled down TCP/IP software stack with a total ROM footprint of 3Kb - 20Kb, depending upon configuration. It supports 8-bit processors or those 16-bit processors that require a single-chip solution with no external memory or DSP's. CMX-MicroNet currently supports more 8-bit, 16-bit microprocessors and DSP's than any other existing solution. CMX-MicroNet is currently available, starting at $5,500 for the base system. All CMX software includes complete source code, no royalties on shipped products and free technical support/updates.

About CMX Systems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1990, CMX Systems 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) and TCP/IP stacks for a wide variety of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcomputers, microprocessors, and digital signal processors. The company's CMX-RTX, CMX-RTXS, and CMX-Tiny+ real-time multi-tasking operating systems support more than 40 processor families and over 30 C-compiler vendors.

About ZiLOG. Inc.
ZiLOG, Inc. (OTCBB: ZILG) is a global supplier of 8-bit micrologic devices. ZiLOG designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of these devices for embedded control and communication applications used in our target markets: consumer electronics, home appliances, security systems, point of sale terminals, personal computer peripherals, personal health and medical products as well as industrial and automotive applications. ZiLOG is headquartered in San Jose, Calif., and employs approximately 670 people worldwide with sales offices throughout Asia, Europe and North America.