Sophia Systems Releases a development environment compatible with
"Cell Broadband Engine".

To: News media

An integrated system maker of microcomputer development devices, Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture; Representative Director and President: Katsumi Harashima; Capital: \90 million; 100% subsidiary company of Sophia Holdings Co., Ltd. (JASDAQ listed company (Code No. 6942)) hereinafter referred to as "Sophia") has completed a development environment, compatible with the Cell Broadband Engine (TM)*1 (hereinafter referred to as "Cell"), a high-performance processor, that has been previously under development, and is now released to developers.

With the adoption of multi-core/multi-processor architecture and ultra high speed data transfer/processing capacity; Cell has realized a dramatic improvement in performance for real time processing and huge volumes of data necessary for computer entertainment and rich media applications. Cell is expected to be applied to a wide range of applications from industrial applications to next-generation digital electric appliances.

The product that has been launched to market by Sophia will be a Debugger based on its "EJ-Debug II" JTAG emulator series. The Debugger is an Eclipse based integrated development environment. The company has developed this new Debugger for plugging into Eclipse to make debugging easier, and also supports the GNU compiler.
Debugging new hardware, including boot programs for hardware start up has been difficult under the conventional simulator environment. The EJ-Debug/CELL product offers efficiency for the "Cell Reference Set" platform made by Toshiba, and has proven to shorten the overall development time.

Sophia has been collaborating with developing debugging tool environments for microprocessors made by Toshiba and for Toshiba's original Media embedded Processor, "MeP". Now there is a clear distinction in that the Cell Broadband Engine requires a more advanced development environment and Sophia made a decision proceed based on the existing strategy of 'Only One' that provides an embedded environment exclusive to Sophia for Cell, which Sophia has been promoting for several years. The company plans to promote the solution with an eye towards SoC support making use of Cell.

Katsumi Harashima, President and Representative Director of Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. say as follows:
"With this close technical cooperation with Toshiba, Sophia will be able to offer an advanced debugging solution ahead of the industry to our customer firms that are developing a Cell-mounted device. Engineers will be able to enjoy the merit of shortening the time period from product development to product launch to the market. We will offer the product world-wide."

Sophia is a leading company of embedded development support in Japan, with world-wide sales and support. Sophia puts an utmost emphasis on providing supports for launching a high-quality excellent product efficiently into the market.

• The following comment is offered in connection with this announcement.
  Mr. Mitsuo Saito, Chief Fellow of Toshiba Corporation's Semiconductor Company:

  It is expected that Cell will be widely used in digital electric appliances and industrial devices that will increasingly require a higher processing capacity in the future. We expect that the realization of a new world will be accelerated where more people will be able to enjoy the merit of Cell under the circumstances of advanced development environment of Cell in collaboration with Sophia Systems.

• Sophia Systems Co., Ltd.
  Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. was founded in 1975 and recently transferred to "Sophia Systems Preparatory Co., Ltd." Sophia Systems Co., Ltd. is now a 100% subsidiary company of Sophia Holdings Co., Ltd. Sophia Systems and has been playing the role of a leader in the embedded system area consistently throughout 30+ years and has continued to supply comprehensive development solutions on the basis of microcomputer development support devices.
  Sophia Systems is working in close cooperation with major companies engaged in embedded development. Furthermore, it is always making efforts to form a new partnership with companies that have advanced technology.
  Sophia Systems has its business locations in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. Overseas, it also has a sales agent network in North America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
  For detailed information of Sophia Systems, please refer to the Websites, http://www.sophia-systems.com (in English) or http://www.sophia-systems.co.jp (in Japanese).

• Eclipse
  Eclipse is an integrated software development environment of open source. It is expected to become the standard software development tool, as its use is spread worldwide mainly among Java developers. Since it is open source software, programs enhancing the functions of Eclipse are increasing in numbers, with a plug-in mode that is able to accept additional programs developed by anyone, amounting to several hundred programs.
  (Source: Eclipse Foundation (http://www.eclipse.org/))

Desired date of publication: Target product: Price:

May12, 2008 (Mon) or later EJ-Debug II for Cell Please contact Sophia Systems Co., Ltd.

Contact for inquiry:

Sophia Systems Co., Ltd.
Planning Marketing Group, Marketing Promotion Dept.
Phone number: 044-989-7245; FAX number: 044-989-7014
E-Mail: market@sophia-systems.co.jp
http://www.sophia-systems.co.jp

*1: Cell Broadband Engine is the trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Company names, product names and trademarks printed here belong to their proprietors, respectively.

We will appreciate it very much if you please carry this article in your media.