PRESS RELEASE

Blunk Microsystems Releases TargetZFSÔ, Compressed Static File System

San Jose, CA (May 1, 2003) Blunk Microsystems, a leading independent developer of turnkey software components for embedded devices, has extended its embedded file system coverage by announcing today the general availability of TargetZFS, a general purpose, compressed, read-only file system for embedded applications. TargetZFS is designed to meet two critical needs: (1) file system access to web content for embedded web servers such as Blunk’s TargetWeb, and (2) compression of application programs loaded to RAM for execution.

The TargetZFS system includes a PC tool that is used to create a compressed image of any directory. The resulting read only file system can be made available to an embedded application in one of two ways: (1) the compressed image can be converted by the PC tool into the initialization data for a C array that is compiled as source code and linked with the application, or (2) the compressed image can be placed into an existing file system on the target and mounted. In either case the result is that the files formerly on the PC become available to the embedded application for access through TargetZFS' standard file system API and are transparently decompressed as they are read.

Some embedded modules, such as web servers, require access to an underlying file system. Blunk now offers a complete set of solutions for these applications, supporting compressed content with TargetZFS either by itself or in combination with TargetFFS, Blunk’s flash file system. In particular, for embedded web servers, though on-the-fly modifications may be made as pages are served, the HTML source files are usually static and significant compression can be expected from TargetZFS. If there is no need to dynamically change the device’s HTML source files, TargetZFS alone can provide a file system for the web server. If dynamic updates of HTML source files are needed, the files can be stored in a flash file system either as individual files or after having been packaged into compressed images using TargetZFS.

Also, many embedded devices have ROM resident boot code that loads the main application program into RAM where it is then executed, typically so that it benefits from higher speed memory. Compression of the memory footprint of an application program is generally very dramatic and TargetZFS provides a straight-forward approach to achieving compression with minimal programming effort.

All target resident code supporting TargetZFS is re-entrant. It was developed using Blunk Microsystems' TargetOS, but can be easily ported to another RTOS or used without an RTOS. TargetZFS is provided with full source code and is royalty-free. The source code is 100% ANSI C.

About Blunk Microsystems

Blunk Microsystems provides a broad spectrum of system software designed for embedded development including an RTOS, stacks, web server, static and flash file systems, device drivers, and board support packages. Blunk's products are available for off-the-shelf reference boards or can be ported to the customer's platform. Products are implemented in tight, clean code to be fast, small, reliable, and portable. TargetZFS is available now and is priced at $5,000 for creating products at a single site. See www.blunkmicro.com for additional information or call (408)323-1758.