KONTRON DEMONSTRATES HARDWARE PLATFORM INTERFACE (HPI) IMPLEMENTATION AT BUS&BOARD/2004 CONFERENCE

Provides Application-Ready Platform with Easier Integration of Hardware and Middleware Building Blocks

SAN DIEGO -- January 19, 2004 -- Kontron, a leading embedded computer technology company, today announced that it is demonstrating a Hardware Platform Interface (HPI) implementation featuring Kontron´s XL-VHDS CompactPCI Platform at the Bus&Board/2004 Conference, which opens today in Long Beach, Calif.

Developed by the Service Availability Forum, a standards group of which Kontron is a member company, the HPI provides an industry standard interface to monitor and control highly available (HA) telecommunications system platforms. For this HPI demonstration, Kontron has partnered with GoAhead ® Software, a provider of integrated, platform-independent middleware for HA systems. The implementation includes an HA chassis and HA middleware, both of which are HPI 1.0 compliant. Kontron and GoAhead are validating the HPI implementation as well as demonstrating its open standards validity and functionality.

"Telecommunications customers require consistently higher levels of service availability, and the development of technologies to meet these needs can tax the internal resources of even large telecommunications companies," said Jan-Philippe De Broeck, product manager, Kontron America. "As they look to outsource the supply and the integration of these critical building blocks, we at Kontron are pleased to put our experience and technical expertise to work on their behalf."

Kontron expects to leverage HPI within its development program for AdvancedTCA products.
"We are pleased to demonstrate our new Service Availability Forum HPI-compatible SelfReliant 3.0 product with Kontron on their new HPI platform implementation," said Paul Zoba, vice president of marketing, GoAhead Software. "The SA Forum HPI interface has proven to simplify the integration of High Availability middleware with the hardware platform."

For more information about the Service Availability Forum and the HPI standard, visit .

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: .

READER SERVICE INQUIRIES: Please forward all reader inquiries to Christine Howe, Media Analyst, Kontron America. Tel: 510-732-6900; e-mail: sales@us.kontron.com.

KONTRON MEDIA CONTACTS:
Media Relations
Kontron America
Bruce Boyer
Vice President, Product Marketing
Phone: 510-732-6900 x103
bruce.boyer@kontron.com


Technical Information
Kontron Canada
Jan-Philippe De Broeck
Product Manager
Phone: 450-437-4661 x2415
Jan-Philippe.DeBroeck@ca.kontron.com

Richard Moore
Product Manager
Kontron America
Phone: 412-921-3322 x3707
Richard.moore@kontron.com