New Professional Software Services Complete Kontron´s "One-Stop Shop" For the Full Spectrum of OEM Design Needs

Kontron Professional Services complement the industry´s broadest hardware selection, creating an integrated design approach to OEM embedded computing applications

LONG BEACH, CA-January 17, 2005-Kontron, a market leader in embedded computing technology, today announced at the Bus & Board 2005 Conference a comprehensive new suite of professional software development and integration services to complement the company´s industry-leading hardware product portfolio. The addition of professional software services fulfills a long-standing company goal of fielding a fully integrated "one-stop shop" for the entire range of OEM design requirements across a broad spectrum of embedded computing markets, including industrial automation, communications, gaming / entertainment, security / defense and others. Available immediately, Kontron´s Professional Services include:

Custom software design-over 300 software engineers worldwide;
Wide variety of software capabilities-embedded application development and porting, board support packages, custom device drivers, BIOS and firmware, and much more;
Software environment expertise-all varieties of standard and embedded Windows and Linux, QNX, Solaris, proprietary RTOS, and many more;
Custom hardware design services-from PCB design to turnkey platform solutions;
Hardware architecture expertise-X86, XScale, PowerPC, MIPS 32-64, SH3-4 and ARM.

Increasingly competitive global markets are driving embedded systems developers to rethink their product development and deployment strategies. Time to market, risk minimization and leveraging external expertise to reduce fixed costs are only a few reasons why more OEMs are seeking strategic partnerships with reliable, well-established suppliers like Kontron. Launched last year in response to growing customer demand for faster, more cost-effective embedded computing solutions, Kontron´s Professional Services were designed to supply and integrate all of the required hardware and software elements to complete the OEM solution, while at the same time lowering development costs and shortening time to market through Kontron´s single-source "total-solution" approach.

"We´re positioned to be an extension of our OEM customer´s engineering team, both from a hardware and software standpoint" said Ken Haney, Vice President Sales, Americas. "Our goal is the same as theirs-to help deploy their products on time and on budget-because when they succeed, we succeed too." Haney went on to say that, given typically long design cycles, most OEMs are often having to make "engineering bandwidth trade-off calculations" to determine the cost and feasibility of expanding or enhancing their existing product portfolios. "Partnering with a one-stop shop like Kontron makes it easier to manage the whole process, while at the same time enabling them to develop new or improved product feature sets in a more timely and cost-effective manner."

Supporting Kontron´s Professional Services offering is the industry´s broadest selection of application-ready platforms and systems, complete high-availability (HA) communication servers, third-party hardware, software, middleware, protocol stacks and industrial web developments tools, and more.

About Kontron: A leading global embedded computer technology company, Kontron supplies a diversified customer base of OEMs, system integrators and application providers in the communications, automation, transportation, medical, military, aerospace, and test and measurement markets. The company helps its customers to considerably reduce their time-to-market and to gain a competitive advantage with products including high-performance open computer platforms and systems, single board computers, man-machine interfaces and mobile computers. Kontron employs more than 1,500 people worldwide and has manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. The company is listed on the German TecDAX 30 stock exchange under the symbol "KBC". Kontron is a member of the Intel Communications Alliance. For additional information on Kontron, please visit: www.kontron.com.

For Further Information, Editors Contact:

Media Relations
Lisa Baker
Kontron America
Phone: 858-405-3010
lisa.baker@us.kontron.com

Agency Contact:
WelComm, Inc
Greg Evans
Account Executive
Phone: (858) 279-2100
greg@welcomm.com