Enhanced GUI Capabilities Boost Developers’ Ability to Customize, Reduce Time to Market and Enhance Response of Consumer Devices -- Embedded World 2008

NUREMBERG, Germany & SANTA CLARA, Calif.-- The Embedded Business Group (EBG) of Hitachi America, Ltd., a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), and Tilcon Software Ltd., the leading provider of Graphical User Interface (GUI) software tools for embedded systems and real-time applications, today announced they have teamed to develop a wide array of reference designs, the first of which is based on the Wind River Platform for Consumer Devices.

With more and more automakers and mobile device manufacturers looking at improved search functions and ease-of-use as ways to market their products, Hitachi EBG and Tilcon provide an important combination. Together, their technologies will help manufacturers in the automotive and mobile markets bring devices such as enhanced GPS systems and on-board entertainment consoles to end-users faster and at lower cost.

For instance, on-board automotive GPS systems in the near future will use more sophisticated search capabilities to enable drivers to find, say, “the nearest gas station on the right-side of the road” or “the closest Italian restaurant” all via a simple, reliable and easy-to-execute interface. With mobile devices such as MP3 players, these extended search and improved interfaces will enable users to look for “songs similar to the one I’m listening to” or create instant playlists of songs “like” this one.

This ability to let users “search the way they think” is the fundamental principle of Entier, an embedded Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that helps developers create robust search functions for devices such as GPS systems. Tilcon, meanwhile, provides developers the ability to configure an easy-to-understand, easy-to-navigate GUI through its Interface Development Suite at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional code-based GUIs making the whole process faster, more reliable and safer.

“Today’s consumers require mobile devices that provide them the content they want in a quick and efficient manner,” said Steven King, vice president of sales and marketing and deputy general manager, Hitachi EBG. “Tilcon’s consumer-centric approach to user interface development has made it easier for us to help our customers design innovative visual interfaces in mobile devices, which ultimately enhance the consumer experience by enabling them to ‘search the way they think.’”

Said Prosanto Sarkar, CEO, Tilcon: “The explosion of mobile content – music, video, photos, location-based information – has made it even more imperative for consumers to have easy access to the information they want. The ease with which our GUI development tools integrate with applications using Entier’s embedded RDBMS offers a clear advantage to developers wanting to offer improved function and capabilities, faster and safer user execution with new screens and flexible interfaces. The combination of our technologies offers clear cost and time-to-market advantages for developers of a variety of consumer devices, from automotive navigation systems to mobile handsets.”

Hitachi EBG markets and sells the Entier embedded database for a variety of embedded applications that take advantage of the ever increasing convergence of data in mobile devices for automotive, digital home and mobile environments. No matter what the content – music, video, point of interest or anything else – Entier has unique capabilities that allow you to “search the way you think” and delivers 50 to 1,000 times faster performance than other products used today. Its unique features are enabling innovative functionality with design capabilities that greatly reduce the number of SQL commands required to perform these ground-breaking search functions, enabling data to be located faster at execution time, and for applications to be developed more rapidly. To view a Flash demo of Hitachi Entier at work, please visit http://www.hitachi.us/Entier/MeetJoe.html.

About Tilcon Software Ltd.

Tilcon Software Limited is the leading provider of graphical user interface software tools for embedded devices. Tilcon’s rich feature set, support for multiple platforms and extensive experience with graphics development for real-time and embedded projects has resulted in an effective toolkit used worldwide in demanding applications such as medical devices, driver information systems, consumer electronics, defense system and a wide range of industrial machinery. Tilcon was founded in 1987 and its customers include Gambro Renal Products, Hyundai Autonet, Siemens, Ericsson NetQual Inc., Physiometrix and other leading manufacturers.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT)(TOKYO:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 384,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2006 (ended March 31, 2007) consolidated revenues totaled 10,247 billion yen ($86.8 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.