October 8, 1996
The Hypermedia P-Code (HPC) application decoding technology from Cabot has been expanded to enable interactive applications to be developed for the Motorola 68XXX family of chips used in digital television set-top boxes. The new development will allow interactive applications to be downloaded directly from the transmission stream onto the set-top units now being produced in anticipation of the digital television revolution by companies such as PACE.
UK digital television is scheduled to begin in earnest next year following a number of local tests. Broadcasters are already promising a vastly increased choice of programmes, an improvement in picture quality and wide-screen pictures. But one of the most exciting developments will be the arrival of interactive services such as home banking, shopping and comprehensive electronic program guides which provide an array of features and information.
Hypermedia P-Code is a machine independent programming code which acts as a virtual machine enabling television set-top units to run a diversely developed range of software for interactive applications. It is predicted that this kind of virtual machine technology will be an essential part of the digital television revolution. In a diverse environment, it allows interactive applications to be developed in a single language, yet run universally by decoding them into the appropriate needs of the particular set-top box. It also guarantees the future of the box, enabling it to run both current and future applications.
The system was one of two virtual machine technologies recently shortlisted by the Digital Audio Visual Council (DAVIC) as the standard to provide interoperability of interactive applications.
The Motorola chipset family adaptation will enhance the system's reputation as the enabling technology for open standards in the multi-vendor, multi-platform. digital television market place. The new introduction means that HPC will now comply with eight different chipset-based platforms, including Intel 80x86, IBM RISC (including Power PC and Apple Mac applications) and Digital PDP chips. It is also Java compatible. Cabot has already prepared interactive demonstrations of the system which include a Tetris-like game and an interactive home-shopping programme.
Comments Cabot managing director, Ken Helps: "Hypermedia P-Code scores over its most immediate rivals in a number of key areas. As a well-established open system, it is both portable and reliable. But it is in the elegant, compact structure of the code where it really scores. This is a key benefit for set-top boxes which are unlikely to be fitted with anything more than two megabytes of RAM." In benchmark tests, HPC has been found to run between 30 and 40 per cent faster than other virtual machines.
The HPC software will operate with digital satellite, cable or terrestrial television set top units. To encourage compatibility and common operating standards, the software is also now being released on the Internet. Meanwhile Cabot is currently developing an authoring tool for HPC. Unlike the majority of authoring tools, more suitable for producing stand-alone or Internet applications, this product win be developed specifically for the digital television market place and the diverse range of media and types of hardware typical of this environment.
Cabot has also released an Application Programming Interface (API) module, which integrates to the HPC software layer, plus an intelligent interface module which allows third party products such as: Electronic programme guides (EPG) and Conditional Access (CA) systems to integrate with HPC software.
Cabot Software is an international company specialising in the world-wide distribution, development and support of software products. The Bristol based company holds the world-wide software license for software developed by the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) which includes the Power System integrated development environment and the P-Code machine independent programming format.