Microware Systems announces key industry partnerships for interactive television; announcements from eight companies support DAVID as the de facto operating system standard for ITV.DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 1995--Microware Systems Corporation, at a press conference held today at the National Cable Television Association annual conference, made announcements with eight leading companies supporting its DAVID David, in the Bible David, d. c.970 B.C., king of ancient Israel (c.1010–970 B.C.), successor of Saul. The Book of First Samuel introduces him as the youngest of eight sons who is anointed king by Samuel to replace Saul, who had been deemed a failure. operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. for interactive television set-top boxes. The announcements, from a wide range of companies, indicate the growing momentum of the ITV (1) See interactive TV. (2) (iTV) The code name for Apple's video media hub (see Apple TV). industry and DAVID's adoption as the standard operating system. Announcements were made by: Novell, Sybase, Motorola, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Concurrent Computer, Scala, Stellar One and ACT/Technico. Microware's DAVID (Digital Audio/Video Interactive Decoder) operating system environment is the standard for ITV set-top boxes and can be used in telephone, cable television and wireless networks. "We are extremely pleased to be able to make announcements with such a wide variety of industry leaders," said Ken Kaplan, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Microware Systems Corporation. "Microware's goal in creating DAVID has been to provide a truly open, industry standard operating system that will enable companies to develop powerful and flexible interactive television products. These announcements prove that we have been successful in reaching this goal." In separate releases today: Novell announced their intent to develop compatibility between Microware's DAVID interactive television operating system and the Novell Embedded Systems Technology Novell Embedded Systems Technology, or NEST, was a series of APIs, data formats and network protocol stacks written in a highly portable fashion intended to be used in embedded systems. (NEST) and to port NetWare and NEST to DAVID. NEST tools enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to quickly and easily develop embedded systems Embedded systems Computer systems that cannot be programmed by the user because they are preprogrammed for a specific task and are buried within the equipment they serve. that can participate as clients on a NetWare-based network. Sybase announced that it will support DAVID with its Gain Interplay(TM) application runtime software environment, which will allow developers a highly efficient system for presenting interactive television applications on inexpensive Windows-based PCs and set-top boxes. Motorola announced that Microware plans to support Motorola's new PowerPC 602 microprocessor with DAVID, providing a complete PowerPC platform See PPCP. (architecture, standard) PowerPC Platform - (PPCP, PReP - PowerPC Reference Platform, formerly CHRP - Common Hardware Reference Platform) An open system standard, designed by IBM, intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different for set-top manufacturers developing products for ITV. IBM announced the establishment of a DAVID development laboratory for the creation of interactive applications and media targeted for DAVID set-top boxes. Concurrent Computer Company announced that it has ported the DAVID UpLink server communications protocol Hardware and software standards that govern data transmission between computers. The term "protocol" is very generic and is used for hundreds of different communications methods. A protocol may define the packet structure of the data transmitted or the control commands that manage the software to its MAXION/IMS interactive multimedia server and the Stellar One 1000 set-top decoder, giving DAVID developers a powerful video server option. Scala announced it is porting its multimedia authoring and multimedia networking software to DAVID interactive television set-top decoders allowing DAVID developers to use these tools to develop ITV applications. Stellar One announced they will enter into an alliance with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation to produce set-top boxes for interactive digital video systems. This follows a recent announcement with Microware for an alliance to provide solutions for ITV. ACT/Technico announced its new DAVID compatible MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing digital video. Pronounced "em-peg," it is the universal standard for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite TV, DVDs and digital video recorders (DVRs). 2 media server for program development as well as an alliance with General Instrument to develop a DAVID/MPEG2 server and development system. This news follows a major announcement last week by General Instrument Corporation to license Microware's DAVID operating system for use in its line of interactive digital terminals for telephone and cable interactive networks. DAVID will be fully integrated into GI's digital terminal, providing a gateway between the user and the services on an interactive network, and handling the flow of video, audio and other I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output to and from the home or workplace. More on DAVID More than 20 manufacturers -- including General Instrument, IBM, Stellar One, Philips, Zenith, Compression Labs Inc., Samsung, Mitsubishi and Goldstar -- have adopted the DAVID platform for use in decoder products that will be used in trials and network developments throughout 1995. Among these are Bell Atlantic's planned deployment in Virginia and New Jersey, Cox Cable's trial in Nebraska, and Hong Kong Telecom's and Telecom Australia's video-on-demand pilot projects. The DAVID system is also supported by leading video server providers including Oracle, nCUBE, DEC and IBM, thereby ensuring an end-to-end solution for interactive television. Created and licensed by Microware, DAVID is based on Microware's OS-9 Real-Time Operating System (operating system) Real-Time Operating System - (RTOS) Any operating system where interrupts are guaranteed to be handled within a certain specified maximum time, thereby making it suitable for control of hardware in embedded systems and other time-critical applications. , which runs on Motorola 68XXX, PowerPC and Intel X86 microprocessors. The DAVID system supports both networked and local interactive applications, graphics and user interfaces. Microware Systems Corporation Microware creates dependable intelligence for smart products and is a "total solution" supplier of software products and services, encompassing high performance real-time operating systems, development tools, custom engineering and training. Founded in 1977 and headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa “Des Moines” redirects here. For other uses, see Des Moines (disambiguation). Des Moines (pronounced /dɪˈmɔɪn/ in English, , Microware was among the first microcomputer software houses to serve the real-time software market. Microware supports over 750 OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and customers worldwide and has distributed more than five million copies of its OS-9 Real-Time Operating System. Its products are used in a broad range of multimedia applications and consumer electronic products including CD-i players, interactive TV decoders and cellular telephones. CONTACT: Microware Systems Corporation Deb Fry, 515/224-1929 or Wilson McHenry Company Dean Rodgers, 415/638-3400 |
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