Fujitsu interactive television deployment in Tokyo to use Microware's DAVID; all digital network to provide ITV and PC services to households.

DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 27, 1995--Microware Systems Corporation today announced that its DAVID real-time operating system will be used in a full-service digital interactive television deployment organized by the cable service operator, City TV Nakano (CTN), a joint venture of Fujitsu Ltd. and the city of Nakano, a suburb of western Tokyo.

The deployment will begin in late December and will last for approximately one year.

Both interactive television and PC services will be available to three hundred of CTN's current 6,400 cable television subscribers participating in the deployment. A hybrid-fiber-coax architecture supports this end-to-end system, in which state-of-the-art interactive technology will support everything from the basic infrastructure to the actual contents and services.

DAVID set-top boxes will be installed and connected to the television to provide fully interactive real-time television services such as video-on-demand or home shopping. In addition, the network will also support enhanced PC capabilities such as high-speed Internet services and direct access to the Nifty-Serve communication network.

"This deployment highlights the use of DAVID in a hybrid-fiber-coax architecture which allows both enhanced TV and PC services to be brought into the home," explained Steve Johnson, executive vice president and general manager of New Media Systems at Microware Systems. "Nakano also demonstrates our vision of a single operating system as the gateway for all the information coming into the home."

The full-scale digital interactive system constructed by CTN brings one line into the home, and from that line the television and PC are accessed. This allows for faster modems and high-speed Internet access for the PC and greater audio/video, film, entertainment and educational access for the TV.

The network is made up of the following components:

-- Digital set-top box using DAVID

-- MPEG2 encoder and decoder

-- Parallel processing video server

-- Video Distribution via ATM switch

-- Digital modulation/demodulation by 64QAM 

Fujitsu Ltd. made an investment in the cable and interactive television industry when they co-founded CTN in 1993. Since its inception, CTN has built the infrastructure to support 68,000 cable and interactive service subscribers. CTN considers this deployment a revenue-generating opportunity to maximize their services, systems and technologies. This deployment will also lay the groundwork for future trials by defining subscribers' needs and the specifics of the market.

More on DAVID

DAVID (Digital Audio/Video Interactive Decoder) is an open operating system software standard for interactive digital television which gives the ITV industry the ability to author an application once, store it on any server, send it across any broadband network and run it on any DAVID-based digital network device. DAVID can be used in telephone, cable television and wireless networks and is licensed by a majority of manufacturers for use in early ITV trials and deployments, both in the United States and abroad.

Company Background

Microware Systems Corporation develops, markets and supports sophisticated real-time operating system software for advanced consumer and industrial products. It is the first real-time operating system company to receive ISO 9001 Total Quality Management Certification from Underwriters Laboratory. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. Microware has offices in San Jose, Calif.; Tokyo, Japan; Burnham, England; and Paris and Aix-en-Provence, France.

CONTACT: Microware Systems Corp.

Deb Fry, 515/224-1929

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Wilson McHenry Company

Dean Rodgers, 415/638-3400