Wind River Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:WIND), the global leader in Device Software Optimization (DSO), announced today that it has become the first commercial vendor to meet the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) 4.0 requirements specified by the Linux Foundation. The CGL 4.0 specification necessitates that the company registering its Linux software meet all of the 135 priority one mandatory requirements outlined by the specification. Wind River Platform for Network, Linux Edition 2.0 is the first Linux distribution for the network and telecommunication industries that adheres to the most recent CGL specification and is available immediately to Wind River customers for project development.

"Wind River is committed to the delivery of leading Carrier Grade solutions for our customers and is proud to be the first vendor to register our Linux as Carrier Grade," said Vincent Rerolle, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Linux product division, Wind River. "Leading Telecom Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs) are developing projects now or have already deployed on Wind River Carrier Grade Linux. Our networking customers appreciate the benefits of a stable and mature Carrier Grade Linux solution enabling them to accelerate their project's time-to-market, reduce development costs and improve vendor interoperability."

One of the key reasons that TEMs use the CGL specification is it provides a consistent Linux platform with known functionality to meet the varying demands of networking applications. The specification defines approximately 250 individual requirements divided into seven key categories for equipment providers: availability, clustering, serviceability, performance, standards, hardware and security. Requirements in each category are then split into priority levels of mandatory, desired and roadmap. The CGL specification, which started in 2002, has undergone several updates, and is now the standard choice for ATCA-based network equipment. It is also designed to support all hardware capabilities to create a foundation for a complete Carrier-Grade solution.

"Wind River is truly demonstrating their leadership and commitment to advancing Carrier Grade Linux for the industry," said Jim Einarsson, Leader, Nortel Common Platforms. "We have standardized on Wind River's Carrier Grade Linux, which has provided excellent performance in our most demanding high-performance Carrier Grade deployments. We are confident that Wind River's Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition will be a cornerstone of our platform strategy, providing the essential capabilities to deliver timely and competitive products."

"Carrier Grade Linux is an important category for the Linux community, not only for Networking but for other industries requiring carrier grade functionality," said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation. "By being the first Linux distribution to register as CGL 4.0 compliant, Wind River has taken seriously the importance of providing a Linux solution of this caliber."

The CGL specification also forms the basis for the Scope Alliance Linux Profile. The Linux Profile from Scope Alliance provides guidelines to standardization bodies such as the Linux Foundation and to Linux distributors such as Wind River to understand which of the features defined by the CGL 4.0 specification are of particular importance to the Network Equipment Providers (NEPs). Platform for Network Equipment meets the mandatory requirements of the Scope Alliance Linux Profile. "The Scope Alliance is very happy that registration of Carrier Grade Linux for CGL 4.0 compliant distributions is starting," said Paul Steinberg, Chairman of Scope Alliance. "This is an indicator of the importance and traction of the Scope Alliance Linux profile in defining solutions profiles for the telecom market."