LOVELAND, COLORADO - 15 April 2009 - Fixstars today announced the release of Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux (YDEL) v6.1. This release introduces important performance improvements as well as new features for the world's only Linux OS built specifically for the Cell Broadband Engine. In addition to providing continued support for Fixstars GigaAccel 180 and IBM QS2x blades, YDEL v6.1 now offers support for the Sony PlayStation3 and IBM JS2x series blades.

"In each release of YDL or YDEL, we focus on one particular area to improve. In YDEL v6.1 while we broadened the hardware support to include the PlayStation 3 and IBM JS blades, our focus was to improve the overall performance of the distribution. YDEL now installs faster, boots faster, and our customers' applications will also benefit from a performance increase," said Owen Stampflee, Fixstars Solutions Director of Engineering.

Results for benchmark tests demonstrate noteworthy performance increases in comparison to other Linux distributions. When running LINPACK (HPL), which is used for the TOP500.org, YDEL v6.1 is 1.5% faster than RHEL on a single blade. The Bonnie++ I/O benchmark shows YDEL as 19.5% faster for NFS than RHEL and 24.8% faster for tmpfs than Fedora.

For more information on these benchmark tests, visit us.fixstars.com/products/ydel/benchmarks.shtml

YDEL v6.1 features several performance improvements such as a patch for increasing memory copy speeds, which in turns improves the performance of device drivers. In addition, this release includes the next generation of ps3vram support, which greatly improves the performance of using for fast, temp file storage or swap using PS3 video RAM.

"Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux v6.1 offers vast improvements for professional Cell development and high performance computing," said Akihiro Asahara, General manager of Platform division, Fixstars Corporation. "With this new release, we have included the latest IBM Cell SDK v3.1, Barcelona Supercomputing Center Cell Superscalar, and updated libraries which facilitate improved code execution. The end result is a highly competitive, enterprise level operating system which offers realworld results."

The Fixstars Solutions website now contains an expanded collection of YDEL documentation. This on-line library allows users to find answers to their Linux and Cell related questions, from installation instructions to HOWTOs.

About Fixstars

Fixstars is the pioneering company of the Cell Broadband Engine, high performance multi-core processor. Fixstars enables companies to speed up business through delivery of high performance, quality applications, middleware, and Linux operating system for the Cell based hardware, including the GigaAccel 180 and IBM QS22 blades for industries such as Finance, Medical, Manufacturing and Digital media. Founded in 2002, Fixstars is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with subsidiary Fixstars Solutions in San Jose, CA and Loveland, CO.

For more information, visit www.fixstars.com/en

Media Contact

Ikuko Hasumi, Manager, Public Relations
Fixstars Corporation
press@fixstars.com
TEL: +81-3-5781-5001
FAX: +81-3-5781-5002