AXP takes a huge step forward by adding new hardware support and software features. I¿ll discuss many of the new hardware and features below.

New hardware for the AIM card generation, now called AIM2, replaces the older AIM card and has a faster CPU and twice as much RAM. This AIM2 card can be inserted into the previously supported routers including the new ISR Generation 2 routers 19xx, 29xx, 39xx and 89x. The first supported Service Ready Engine service module runs on the new Generation 2 routers and has 1.066 GHz cpu, 512 MB RAM and 4 GB eUSB disk. Service modules and cards running on the Generation 2 routers require IOS version 15.0(1)M or higher.

There are many new software supported features as well. The AXP kernel has been upgraded to 2.6.22.10. AXP now supports Red Hat Package Module (RPM) extraction. RPM modules now only need to be packaged with the application and they will be automatically extracted into the guest environment. With the addition of RPM support, the previously built in Python and JVM support files have been removed, so developers will want to include the appropriate RPM file when packaging applications that require this support. The guest environment has been upgraded from the previously supported Fedora Core 4 to a much more current release of CentOS 5.2. Developers preferring to import their own Linux operating system into the guest environment will be pleased to know that AXP now supports this feature via user defined Linux environment (UDL).

Support of Cisco add on packages has been greatly simplified. Rather than having to bundle these packages with your application or install them separately, the Cisco supported add on packages are now built into the system. By simply specifying the UUID of the Cisco add on package as a dependency the package will now be dynamically added to the guest environment at install time.

Many other features have been added as well. AXP now includes enhanced timezone support making it easier to share and correct timezones. Additional script hooks have been added to allow for application/system checks prior to and during an upgrade. An optional shutdown timeout switch has been added to ensure that applications are gracefully shutdown. A new set of APIs have been provided ¿ AXP SysInfo and SysOp which provide AXP operation and system information to the application.

See the AXP 1.5.1 release notes for more information. The software and documentation are available at the AXP CCO site: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9701/index.html . Be sure to read and subscribe to the AXP product announcements forum at http://developer.cisco.com/web/axp/forums . This CDN site also includes support documentation, software, forums and white papers designed to make use of AXP much easier and smoother.