Under terms of the distribution agreement, Kontron will be able to resell VxWorks production licenses, and also agrees to work with Wind River to proliferate Wind River Linux for use by joint customers. Wind River will continue to provide hardware and software tools, development environments, source code and support contracts for joint customers.

This agreement extends a decade-long collaboration, and is expected to extend the software and service offerings of Wind River (Alameda, Calif.) and Kontron (Eching, Germany) with the companies initially targeting the industrial, medical, military and aerospace, transportation, and networking market segments.

Kontron has also joined the Wind River Partner Validation Program, initially with its nanoETXexpress-SP module validated for use with VxWorks 6.7.

"This distribution agreement enables us to further reduce time-to-market requirements, and increase our value-added services by providing our customers a richer out-of-the-box experience with a compelling set of tools and operating system options," said Dirk Finstel, chief technology officer, Kontron AG. " In parallel, Kontron will continue to leverage its strategic relationship with Wind River to deliver tightly integrated solutions that help reduce our customers total cost of ownership. The inclusion of the Kontron nanoETXexpress-SP in the Wind River Partner Validation Program, including optimized VxWorks 6.7 platform evaluation in the box, is a good example."

Roger Williams, vice president, Strategic Alliances, Wind River added, "The distribution agreement between Wind River and Kontron will allow both companies to more quickly respond to new design win opportunities. I am also pleased that Kontrons nanoETXexpress-SP is the first embedded module to be listed with our Partner Validation Program. With both distribution and market-leading solutions in place, both companies are well positioned to capture next-generation design wins in a number of key vertical market segments.