August 29, 1996
Microware Systems Corp. [NASDAQ:MWAR] said it is targeting the next generation of Internet/television viewing with new system software designed to run World Wide Web and other Net applications on televisions. Microware's new OS-9 based DAVID (Digital Audio/Video Interactive Decoder) system software is already going into Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America Inc.'s (MCEA) new DiamondWeb Internet TV.
Consumers will be able to effortlessly access the World Wide Web through their televisions with the DAVID system, officials said, with the touch of a button.
Microware's OS-9 operating system is described as a full-featured, multitasking real-time operating system with a scalable architecture that allows OS-9 to fit in a wide range of designs.
The DAVID operating system is an open one, officials said, and allows content and network providers to author an application once, store it on a server, send it across a broadband network, and run it on a variety of DAVID-based digital network devices. Besides televisions, DAVID can also be used in telephone and wireless networks.
Although MCEA has already licensed the DAVID environment, Microware is "actively seeking other companies (to license DAVID) as well," Vinay Goel, vice president and general manager of new media systems, told Newsbytes. He said the MECA-DiamondWeb implementation is the first design for DAVID, and he hopes other companies will implement it as well.
In MCEA's DiamondWeb announcement, MCEA said it would work with Microware to develop a new open standard for television and network computing, called the network-centric television standard.
Microware officials said the company licensed the Java programming environment and HotJava Web browser from Sun Microsystems so that the DAVID system software could run Java applets. Then in June, Microwave licensed Spyglass' Client Web Technology Kit (WTK) to provide Web access for non-traditional products, including televisions.