S2 Technologies Enables Handset SDK Testing

SAN DIEGO–September 10, 2007–S2 Technologies (S2), the leader in embedded software verification, today announced its STRIDE continuous integration platform for use by software engineers in the development of cellular-handset software development kits (SDKs). Using STRIDE, a handset provider can now create, run and even deliver test cases as a component of its SDK. This leverages the domain expertise of the handset developer and allows the component provider to create reusable and automatable test scripts, or test assets, which can be used throughout the development process by anyone on the product team.

A handset SDK is an important tool for the success of a new handset, as it enables downstream telecom and service providers to add applications and customize features and services more easily and reliably. With time-to-market pressures on customer development teams, having a high-quality set of development tools, interfaces and sample code within an SDK can be a key factor in building and testing custom features.

When developing the SDK, a handset provider must achieve a high level of code quality throughout the development lifecycle to best serve its customers and meet its delivery dates. S2’s STRIDE Embedded Software Verification Platform provides the foundation for the SDK development team to build and execute test cases as an integrated part of the development process.

Downstream Advantages From Test Cases
By incorporating STRIDE test cases that can be run by users of the SDK, downstream customers are able to take advantage of the work done by the SDK development team in building the SDK itself. Application developers can test their own features and enhancements, ensuring that existing code within the SDK has not been compromised. They can also write new test cases for their new code to achieve a more thorough testing of new features.

“Building an embedded platform of any type requires integrating different code from multiple sources, including new code, existing code from other platforms and open source,” explained Mark Underseth, CTO and founder of S2. “Through visibility and comprehensive testing, STRIDE enables development teams to build quality into the integrated platform. Management can see and analyze quality progress throughout development and take corrective action if necessary. Developers can build and execute tests as a natural part of their daily work.”

A new handset is a significant investment for a wireless manufacturer. Management for the handset provider must have visibility into the software development and quality processes in order to meet customer requirements and internal cost goals. STRIDE enables those responsible for cost and delivery performance to analyze quality results and trends and take remedial action if required.

Early insight into code quality enabled one SDK development team to identify and address quality issues sooner, deliver higher quality code to QA and achieve a more predictable release schedule. For every bug found and fixed, the developers added additional test cases surrounding the specific issue. In all, this SDK development team wrote almost 200,000 lines of test code for the 400,000 lines of functional code in the SDK. This effort resulted in an almost-unheard-of 95-percent test coverage of SDK functions and 90-percent coverage of lines of executable code.

About STRIDE
STRIDE is an embedded software-verification platform designed to optimize integration by enabling software development teams to accelerate continuous integration, testing and verification.

Increasing embedded software complexity, the addition of more unique hardware platforms, greater use of outsourcing and third-party code, and compressed development cycles have radically increased the difficulty of integrating and validating embedded software applications. By using STRIDE to optimize integration, companies can shorten the time required to integrate new features, improve software quality delivered by developers, maintain stable software baselines, facilitate distributed and offshore development and more easily incorporate third-party software.

Price & Availability
The STRIDE 2.1 Embedded Software Verification Platform is available now with a starting price of $8,300 USD. Current STRIDE 2.0 licensees are eligible to receive STRIDE 2.1 as a no-cost upgrade.

About S2 Technologies
S2 Technologies provides products and services to optimize integration of embedded software. Optimizing Integration addresses how development teams integrate, test and continuously verify their software throughout the development process. The company’s flagship product, STRIDE, an embedded software verification platform, was commercially launched in January 2003 and is already in use by a number of Fortune 500 companies. Founded in July 2000, S2 is privately held and headquartered in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California.

For more information, please visit www.s2technologies.com.

The URL for this release is located at: http://www.s2technologies.com/pdf/PR_S2ReleasesHandsetSDK.pdf