GDA Technologies, Inc. Introduces Reference Design Kit for Motorola’s MPC8540 PowerQUICC™ III Processor

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, SAN FRANCISCO – April 23, 2003 – GDA Technologies, Inc., a fast growing supplier of Electronic Design Services (EDS), announced the release of its Reference Design Kit for the Motorola MPC8540 PowerQUICC™ III processor at the 2003 Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco.

GDA’s Reference Design Kit is based on the MPC8540, a new, highly integrated, high-density processor from Motorola’s PowerQUICC III family. GDA’s reference platform is a RMC and PMC form factor board that supports both RapidIO™ technology and PCI interfaces and a full complement of other features, including a SODIMM slot for DDR memory, Flash memory, a Gigabit Ethernet port, a fast Ethernet port and a serial port. The GDA Reference Design Kit comes with the Embedded Linux board support package.

The design kit is an ideal platform for embedded developers, OEMs and system integrators who want a flexible development environment around Motorola’s PowerQUICC III processor. The RapidIO and PCI interfaces enable the board to be used as a ready-made plug-in CPU module on a cPCI board or base board. The full complement of other features also allows the board to be used as a control/management processor sub-system in a variety of system designs.

Motorola’s MPC8540 is the industry's first RapidIO technology-enabled processor. It addresses the needs for higher compute density and lower system cost by balancing processor performance with I/O system throughput, thereby making it a powerful control element for network routers and switches, storage subsystems, network appliances, and print and imaging devices.

“Motorola’s PowerQUICC III family of processors showcases Motorola’s superiority in communication processor technology with its rich feature set, high integration and powerful performance. GDA is proud to introduce the MPC8540-based Reference Design Kit and be one of the early supporters of the PowerQUICC III family,” said Gopa Periyadan, Vice President of System and Software Design Business Unit at GDA.

“Leveraging the PowerPC™ instruction set architecture and its extensive PowerQUICC processor-based design expertise, GDA has created a valuable development platform around Motorola’s next-generation communications processor for Motorola’s customers,” said Raj Handa, Director, PowerQUICC Business Development and Marketing at Motorola. “Customers can use this flexible platform to develop solutions around the MPC8540 processor, thereby simplifying system design and reducing time to market.”

GDA worked in close collaboration with Motorola over the past few months to develop the MPC8540 processor-based solution. GDA is a member of Motorola’s Smart Networks Alliance Program (SNAP) in the capacity of a design services provider for hardware, software and reusable IP blocks. GDA is featured in the 2002 and 2003 Edition of the Digital DNA Motorola Smart Networks Resource Guide. GDA is also a member of Motorola Design Alliance Program (MDAP), which allows Motorola and its clients to utilize engineering design services offered by GDA in systems, boards, SoCs, ASICs, FPGAs and IPs.

Pricing and Availability
GDA’s Reference Design Kit for the MPC8540 PowerQUICC III processor is available third quarter of 2003. Pricing details are available through GDA Sales at sales@gdatech.com.

About GDA Technologies, Inc.
GDA Technologies, Inc. is a leading design services company specializing in embedded, networking and consumer electronic designs. GDA focused on designing Systems, Boards, SOCs, ASICs, FPGAs and IPs from concept to product. GDA has successfully developed products in areas of Networking, Digital Video, Internet Appliances and Hand Held Solutions. GDA is headquartered in San Jose, CA and has satellite design centers in Sacramento, Boston, Chennai and Bangalore. GDA’s web site is at www.gdatech.com.