Tuxera Signs Intellectual Property Agreement with Microsoft

Tuxera, the NTFS-3G file system provider, signs intellectual property agreement with Microsoft and announces Tuxera exFAT for embedded systems.

Helsinki, Finland – August 26, 2009 – Today Tuxera Ltd, the company founded by the leading open source NTFS project NTFS-3G, announced extensive cooperation with Microsoft. As part of this cooperation, Tuxera has signed an Intellectual Property Agreement, and has joined Microsoft’s exFAT Program, which will enable the launch of a new exFAT driver. In addition, Tuxera has joined Microsoft’s Interop Vendor Alliance, a community of software and hardware vendors working together to enhance interoperability with Microsoft systems.

With the agreements, Tuxera becomes the first independent software vendor to offer exFAT drivers. Microsoft supports exFAT as the first choice for many file system interoperability needs, including flash memory in consumer devices. Further, the SD Card Association has chosen exFAT as the standard file system for their SDXC cards. Tuxera has now access to the exFAT specifications, Microsoft’s source code implementation of exFAT, and testing and verification tools. Tuxera exFAT for Embedded Systems will be first available for Linux.

“We are looking forward to working with an increasing number of OEM customers. Adding exFAT into our existing NTFS product portfolio is the logical step to help our customers solve any interoperable file system need they have,” comments Szabolcs Szakacsits, Tuxera CTO and the founder of NTFS-3G. “As an open source company, we feel excited to sign an intellectual property agreement with Microsoft. They are a great partner, and I am confident that our agreements, and this collaboration, will ensure a bright future for file system interoperability and data portability that benefits device manufacturers and consumers alike,” says Mikko Välimäki, Tuxera CEO.