EBT's DynaWeb Web server ships on all new silicon graphics workstations; Silicon Graphics also uses DynaWeb to publish large product manuals on the Web.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 29, 1995 -- Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT, http://www.ebt.com) today announced that Silicon Graphics, Inc. will be bundling EBT's DynaWeb(tm) large document Web server as a standard feature with all desktop systems, starting with systems slated to ship in early December.

In addition, Silicon Graphics is using DynaWeb to publish existing SGML-based IRIS InSight(tm) product manuals on its 'Silicon Surf' Web site for viewing by any Web browser (http://www.sgi.com, select the "Publications" button). EBT is demonstrating DynaWeb this week in Boston at Internet Expo, booth #1200.

IRIS InSight manuals that ship with all Silicon Graphics workstation systems incorporate EBT's DynaTex(tm) technology. DynaWeb, in addition to standard HTTPD Web server features, converts the DynaText-based IRIS InSight manuals, stored in SGML, into HTML "on-the-fly" for rapid navigating and searching by any Web browser. Bundling DynaWeb with all workstations now ensures that the Web delivery option is available to all IRIS InSight Professional Publishers. IRIS InSight Professional Publisher (IIPP) 1.0 is a development environment available to registered members of the Silicon Graphics Developer's Program. IIPP 1.0 enables online help, IRIS InSight, and now DynaWeb electronic books to be created from one set of FrameMaker(tm) source files. Using tools available from EBT today, Silicon Graphics users, software vendors, and OEMs can create and publish complete, cross-platform online documentation immediately.

"Silicon Graphics is committed to providing our customers with the most advanced tools available for publishing on the World Wide Web," said Shantanu Narayen, director of engineering for Silicon Graphics' Digital Media Systems division. "The DynaWeb Large Document Web server will give our customers a strategic advantage by enabling them to easily adapt content for the evolving Web."

DynaWeb allows large publishers such as Silicon Graphics to store and manage documents in the ISO standard SGML format and subsequently re- target the information to the latest version of HTML with minimal incremental effort.

"Separation of content (how information is created and managed) from format (how information is delivered) is central to the SGML standard and EBT's products," said Kent Summers, director of marketing at EBT. "The DynaText/DynaWeb Professional Publishing System provides information publishers like Silicon Graphics a 'publish once, distribute many' model where a single set of content can be leveraged across multiple audiences and delivery mediums, such as CD-ROM, print, and the Web. Going forward, integrated CD/Web publishing solutions are very interesting to professional publishers as they explore new ways to keep information up-to-date, to personalize information to end users, and to reach the widest possible audience. As Web browser vendors continue to adopt unique HTML tags to differentiate themselves, this separation of content from format, and the flexibility that our solutions afford, become all the more relevant," continued Summers.

"Sharing source files between CD and World Wide Web versions of IRIS InSight manuals allowed our publications department to put thousands of pages of material on the Web in a matter of weeks," Narayen continued.

SGML markup captures all of the structural information needed to deliver documents in any medium - paper, CD, or World Wide Web - and to navigate those documents efficiently on different electronic media. All of the navigational controls (table of contents, arrows, etc.) that exist in the manuals on Silicon Graphics' DynaWeb Publications Server are generated at run time from the structure of the document itself, just as they are in Silicon Graphics' IRIS InSight online books. The only real difference between the Web version of Silicon Graphics manuals and the ones that are accessed from the CD, is that they use different stylesheets designed to "target" a specific class of online browser.

DynaWeb also enables Web client browsers to take advantage of the full functionality of the DynaText search engine, including support for full-text, wildcard, Boolean, proximity, context, and complex searching. End users can quickly locate relevant information with searches that span multiple electronic book collections. The number of search hits are displayed alongside an interactive table of contents (TOC). Only TOC entries that contain search hits are displayed to end-users, greatly improving the efficiency for searching large collections of electronic books.

DynaWeb supports the de facto standard University of Illinois, NCSA HyperText Transfer Protocol Daemon (HTTPD) features, including ISMAP and Common Gateway Interface (CGI). DynaWeb also supports standard HTTP client authentication, which enables clients to send a non-secure user ID and password (for verification) to the DynaWeb server to prevent people from entering specific areas on a DynaWeb server. For more secure environments, DynaWeb can be integrated with HTTP servers with Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Secure HTTP (S-HTTP) capabilities via CGI.

DynaWeb server software currently runs on the following platforms: Silicon Graphics IRIX(tm) 5.x, Solaris 2.x, HPUX 9.x, IBM AIX 3.2.x, DEC Alpha/OSF 3.x, UnixWare 2.x, and Solaris x86.

DynaText, introduced in 1990, is the world's leading standards-based online professional publishing system. DynaText accepts any valid SGML document and automatically builds a dynamic, cross platform electronic book that enables users to quickly browse, search, and annotate large documents. DynaText electronic books can include an interactive table of contents, hyperlinks, tables, equations, graphics, audio, video and animation. DynaText electronic books can be shared on heterogeneous client/server networks or placed on standalone workstations. DynaText runs on Microsoft(R) Windows(tm), Apple Macintosh(R) systems, and all major UNIX(R) platforms.

Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. (EBT) provides corporate and commercial publishers with the industry's most comprehensive standards-based online professional publishing solution. EBT, a founding member of SGML Open and the MIT World-Wide Web Consortium (W3C), develops and markets a product suite engineered from the ground up around SGML. EBT's cross-platform software tools enable customers to manage and publish information to CD-ROM, World-Wide Web, LAN, and print from a single, standards-based source. EBT information can be accessed from its home page on the Web at http://www.ebt.com/. EBT is privately held and headquartered in Providence, RI. -0-

Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is an international ISO standard for document markup. SGML has been adopted by industries with large amounts of in-house publishing including aircraft, airlines, automotive, computer, defense, electronics, pharmaceuticals, securities, telecommunications and transportation, as well as government systems integrators, publishing companies, and academic research centers.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is a simple application of SGML used for marking up and rendering documents within the World-Wide Web environment on the Internet.

DynaText, DynaWeb, and EBT are trademarks of Electronic Book Technologies, Inc. Silicon Graphics is a registered, and IRIS InSight and IRIX are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company Ltd. All other company, product, or service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of respective holders.

CONTACT: Paul Lamoureux([e-mail])

EBT

[phone] x241

or

Alys Reynders, Craig Librett

Miller/Shandwick Technologies

[phone]