FAST and Motorola Working Together to Provide Smart Commercial Kitchen

Time To Market For Network and Internet Ready Commercial Appliances Can Be Dramatically Cut.

STRATFORD, Conn., May 19, 2000 -- Food Automation - Service Techniques, Inc. (FAST) in cooperation with Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced today a solution to speed the implementation of network and Internet enabled appliances in commercial kitchens worldwide.

Through the relationship, FAST and Motorola are working together to offer cost effective, code-compatible networking capabilities through Motorola's family of microcontrollers (MCUs). Systems designers may use this technology to create appliance controls that can communicate to an online kitchen in a plug and play environment as well as access the Internet by utilizing the FAST Smart Commercial Kitchen® (SCK®) software embedded in Motorola's MCUs.

"We are pleased to be working with FAST to provide network ready solutions to respond to the food service industry's call for an online kitchen," said Greg White, general manager of Motorola's Microcontroller Division with the Semiconductor Product Sector. "The combination of FAST's SCK software library and Motorola's MCUs will enable designers of smart appliances to develop Digital DNAä embedded technology solutions that are cost effective and able to reduce time to market."

Ben Koether, chairman/CEO of FAST said, "The focus of our efforts with Motorola is to offer an off-the-shelf and interoperable network solution that addresses the industry's food safety, efficiency and labor management needs. Together we expect to provide appliance developers with a simple, cost effective way to embed network and Internet ready components into a wide range of commercial kitchen equipment."

FAST has ported its SCK communication software libraries for use on embedded designs using Motorola's 8-bit 68HC05 and 68HC11 cores. This summer the 8-bit 68HC08 core is expected to be added to this list of MCUs supporting the SCK communication software libraries. Through these libraries, commercial kitchen appliance designers using these popular Motorola microcontrollers may rapidly bring smart appliances to the market.

A software development kit from FAST is expected later this year that may further assist developers in integrating the SCK libraries into their specific applications. The development kit is expected to be available to designers wishing to build a network ready appliance utilizing technology from Motorola and FAST.

With Motorola joining FAST's growing list of SCK partners, the company continues to expand its development of open systems and devices that are designed to deliver interoperability and interconnectivity between commercial kitchen appliances and restaurant management systems using FAST Smart Commercial Kitchen technology.

The FAST SCK technology is designed to make it easy to create network ready appliances that can be controlled, monitored and managed using industry standard open database architecture. These appliances may share information through real-time communication across a network without the need to create proprietary protocols or drivers. In addition, the SCK technology may provide access to the Internet without requiring the overhead associated with creating a TCP/IP stack in each embedded device.

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