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Express Logic Announces Availability of Network File Sharing Software for ThreadX®

CIFS is a network protocol designed to share files between systems over a network. There are typically two types of systems involved in this file sharing, clients and servers. Clients access files that are stored on a server. Many systems operate as both a client and a server which is the case with most desktop systems in use today. These desktop systems can both access files on a file server, but system admin and other users can also access files on shared folders on the desktop machine. With Blue Peach's Blue Share software, ThreadX -based systems can participate in this same network of file-sharing nodes of desktops and file servers.

ThreadX is Express Logic's royalty-free, full source code RTOS that is deployed in over 800 million consumer electronics, medical, and industrial automation devices. CIFS allows the sharing of directories, files, printers and other types of objects represented using file semantics over a network. CIFS also provide mechanisms for discovering servers, browsing for shares, listing of files, authenticating access, and securing communications. Network file sharing provides many benefits and CIFS is the most widely deployed and most cross platform friendly of all available file sharing protocols. Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Network File Sharing are closely related since all NAS devices use some form of protocol to access files. Most NAS devices today use CIFS. Embedded devices, enabled with CIFS, are able to access files on most NAS devices on the market.

The benefits of Network File Sharing are intuitive but in an embedded space, there are unique capabilities that become possible once the device is able to share files over a network:

• no need for hard disk storage or large flash storage which can reduce costs
• storage can be used more efficiently and shared among many devices, alleviating costs
• devices can share state and files reducing the need for complicated synchronization mechanisms
• loadable executables allowing for software upgrades without downloads and flash updates
• centralized backup of important state information
• use of high availability and data integrity features of RAID-based storage

CIFS layers additional benefits over basic Network File Sharing:

• advanced communications semantics allowing communications through pipes or FIFOs
• shared locking of files insuring data integrity across multiple clients
• ability for sophisticated caching algorithms allowing for increased scalability of applications
• fault tolerance and high availability through fail-over and resilient network connections
• advanced security providing secure authentication, and file and directory security policies
• high-performance implementations
• unicode file names allowing for non-English and Western European languages
• global file name space. Users need not be aware of the network nature of the files and all accesses occur transparently over the network

CIFS needs little from a host RTOS or operating system. Blue Share provides all layered functions needed with the exception of a TCP/IP networking stack and basic operating system fundamentals such as threads, and related synchronization mechanisms, which are now available from ThreadX, NetX and FileX. Secure Authentication requires a cryptographic stack like openssl and a CIFS server requires underlying host file system support.

Richard Schmitt, CTO of Blue Peach said, "The integration of Blue Share with ThreadX is a natural. Both Blue Share and ThreadX differentiate themselves in the embedded marketplace by being robust, high performing, and compact. The combination of Blue Share and ThreadX provides the smallest footprint for a CIFS client or server available today. In addition, ThreadX has one of the best programming paradigms for real-time systems. Blue Share exploits this model resulting in a very high performing and scalable system."

When asked why the integration with ThreadX is notable, Richard Schmitt replied, "The integration of Blue Share and ThreadX enables a whole new class of small footprint network file aware devices. It is particularly exciting for wireless SoC applications where low-power and low-cost solutions are so critical."

Some examples of applications that will benefit from this product integration:

• Wireless applications sharing office documents or media
• Printers printing documents queued from anywhere on the network
• Digital TVs, DVDs, DVRs and other consumer electronics playing music, photos, and videos from computers on the network
• Network attached storage devices
• Medical devices accessing and updating records directly
• Digital cameras printing or transferring pictures without special software on the target devices.

"Embedded applications are increasingly pivotal in home and enterprise networks," commented William Lamie, President of Express Logic. "By offering this integration with Blue Share, ThreadX continues to lead in platform support for intelligent network-aware devices. Particularly exciting is the seamless integration of Blue Share's CIFS Client with FileX. Not only does this enable new development efforts, it also allows existing FileX applications to access and export their files anywhere on the network. We are always pleased when we can offer a new capability that transparently improves new and existing ThreadX applications."

Blue Share has been integrated with Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS,NetX, its TCP/IP networking stack, and FileX, its FAT-based file system. Blue Share is also integrated with other third-party network and file system products for ThreadX. For a limited time, and in recognition of this announcement, Blue Peach is offering their Blue Share Client and Server software stack free of charge. The product is licensed as royalty-free source on individual OEM products.

About Blue Peach and Blue Share

Blue Peach has been developing network file sharing and digital home software for the consumer electronics industry for 10 years. Their software has been deployed in numerous embedded products including televisions, printers, cameras, point-of-sale terminals, medical equipment and more. Blue Share is a high performing, low footprint, robust implementation of the CIFS network file sharing protocol. Blue Share runs as either a real-mode or protected-mode application on embedded and desktop systems. It supports the extended security model meaning it allows integration with Active Directory and NTLM secured networks. Blue Peach was started in Massachusetts, but has recently relocated to Austin, Texas. For more information about Blue Peach or Blue Share, please visit their web site at http://www.bluepeach.com or call 1-877-BLUPEACH (1-877-258-7322).

About Express Logic and ThreadX

Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Express Logic offers the most advanced run-time solution for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX RTOS, the high-performance NetX TCP/IP stack, the FileX embedded MS-DOS compatible file system, and the USBX Host/Device USB protocol stack. All products from Express Logic include full source-code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit the Web site at http://www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or email inquires to sales@expresslogic.com.

ThreadX, BenchX, TraceX, and FileX are registered trademarks, and NetX, CANX, USBX, PrismX, StackX, preemption-threshold, picokernel, and UDP fast path technology, are trademarks of Express Logic, Inc. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders.

Hughes Communications, Inc.
Janice Hughes, 705-751-9740
Cell: 705-774-8686
Media Relations
janice@hughescom.net
or
Express Logic, Inc.
John Carbone, 858-613-6640, Ext. 202
Vice President of Marketing
jcarbone@expresslogic.com