Faster Than A Speeding Bullet - Acorn Cybervillage

Acorn Group has announced that its TVCentric™ technologies will take advantage of Sun Microsystems' Java™ platform. This will allow new, Internet enabled TVs using Acorn's TVCentric™ technology to run Java applications. Acorn will work closely with Sun to provide Personal Java™ a platform independent version of Java with additional support for displaying digital images on standard televisions.

Currently, no standard exists for displaying Java technology on TVs. Acorn is taking the lead and innovating where current technologies do not exist. Acorn expects television-centric Java will become the de-facto standard technology for the convergence of TV and Java technologies.

This use for Java will provide a consistently high quality look and feel on TV display presenting materials produced for computer monitors in a format optimised for televisions. Java on Acorn's TVCentric technology will provide TV manufacturers with the benefits of Java's portable bytecode and Acorn's world renowned display technology. Acorn is developing new classes in Java to be called Acorn TVX.

Kevin Coleman, Head of Communications, from the Acorn Group comments: "From now on all of Acorn's operating systems, reference and production designs will have deeply embedded support for Java. Users will have all the same advantages when using Java applets on consumer devices as they do now on desktop computers. Any Java applet will be able to take advantage of Acorn's anti-aliasing font technology, anti-jitter screen displays and advanced graphics rendering without any change to the applets code."

"Personal Java provides cross platform independence for our reference technologies and we have ensured that OEMs can take advantage of the enhancements our operating system brings. The combination of RISC OS the leading ARM-based OS and Java gives us the potential to provide our customers with the potential to include both tailored solutions and gerneric Java applets in their products. This is appropriate today when using RISC OS, and with our future operating system which has quality of service facilities built into it."

"We are looking to diversify into new markets," Jon Kannegaard, Vice President of Software Products at Sun's JavaSoft Division, added: "And we are delighted to work with a leader in the consumer Internet appliance arena. Acorn has operating systems and technologies highly optimised for the type of consumer Internet Appliances that Personal Java is designed to support. With the adoption of Java on RISC OS now, and the development of Java on Acorn's TVCentric technology, we are clear that we will have a major impact in markets for Internet enabled products."

Acorn will use the Java Platform to ensure compatibility and portability for Java and TVCentric system software. In addition, the technology will allow Internet-enabled televisions to take 'standard' HTML, auto-format the information and render it in better quality so that it can be displayed effectively on a TV.

Acorn is the first company with TV centric technologies to license an implementation of Java for consumer devices, known as Personal Java. This will be used in Acorn reference designs targeted at the market for Internet appliances. Primarily developed for use in small Internet appliances, Personal Java is ideally suited to run consumer products requiring interactive multimedia technologies -- exactly the technology that Acorn is providing to its clients.

Initially, Acorn's RISCafe™, Acorn's implementation of Java Virtual Machine™ that runs on RISC OS, will be compliant with the next release of Java. In addition, Acorn will be working to ensure that its Java implementation is ported to its quality of service supporting operating system.

Developer support

These latest developments with Java significantly broaden the types of applications that can be accessed on Acorn OS solutions. All the applications can be embedded and optimised. Java for Acorn's TVCentric technology will also be portable.

Availability

Acorn's RISCafe with Java 1.2 incorporated will be available to Acorn customers at the end of this year. Acorn's quality of service OS with Personal Java and television-centric Java will be available in mid 1998.

About Acorn

Acorn Group plc, head-quartered in Cambridge, UK, is one of the world's leading developers and suppliers of innovative technology designs and consultancy. Acorn is at the core of some of the world's best digital technology products.

Customised versions of Acorn's award winning technologies have already been licensed to Net Products, Olivetti, Proton, RCA/Thomson, Semi-Tech Corporation (AKAI), Uniden America Corporation, Wongs Electronics Co. Limited, Zenith, NTT, Samsung, Curtis Mathes, Funai, Casio, Raytheon, ETRI and IDEA (now Aranex), and other confidential clients.

Acorn has strategic partners in the hardware server market, such as SUN, nCube, Digital and ICL and telecommunications infra-structure suppliers such as Alcatel, Ericsson, Siemens and Orange.

Source: Acorn Computer Group plc