Digital Equipment Corporation (NYSE: DEC) and Network Computer Inc., a subsidiary of Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL), today announced the DIGITAL Network Appliance Reference Design. Based on Digital's powerful StrongARM microprocessor, the reference design is aimed at creating a standard for the most powerful, low-cost network computing platform. The companies believe integration of NC Access(TM), NCI's comprehensive network computing software environment, with this new design will help shape the direction of the emerging network computing market. The DIGITAL Network Appliance Reference Design will guide manufacturers in building high performance, low-cost appliances that access the World Wide Web, yet still interoperate with existing systems. The reference design is flexible and will support multiple software environments. Documentation for the design will be available free to all manufacturers later this month. Reference unit samples will be available in April with significant quantities later this spring.

Funai Electric Company Ltd., headquartered in Osaka, Japan, and Aranex, Inc., of Bedford, Mass., have committed to build network computing devices in accordance with the DIGITAL Network Appliance Reference Design.

"Low cost and high performance are important to our customers in their deployment of Network Computers throughout their organizations," said Michael Chatterton, vice president of marketing for Aranex, manufacturers of the first Network Computer for business users, the Internet Client Station (ICS). "Integrating the unique high-speed, extremely low power consumption technology that Digital has incorporated into the StrongARM CPU with our ICS allows us to fulfill these customer requirements."

Springboard for Manufacturers

"We believe this powerful combination of Digital/NCI technologies will become the springboard for leading manufacturers to produce cost-effective, easily supported network clients," said Robert Supnik, Digital vice president of Research and Development. "This reference design will enable Digital to leverage its expertise in microprocessors, Alpha servers, networking, and systems integration services. Digital will offer customers complete solutions for implementing, managing, and supporting network computing environments," he added.

NCI's NC ACCESS

NC Access is the enabling software inside the network computer. It includes a comprehensive suite of applications that provide access to the Web, electronic mail, scheduling, news services and multimedia capabilities. Easy to use like a television or telephone, NC Access requires no installation or administration.

"We're pleased to be working with Digital to provide a powerful framework for manufacturers to build network computers," said Jerry Baker, president of NCI. "The combination of NCI's NC Access and the DIGITAL Network Appliance Reference Design will result in devices that are both easy to use, and affordable for homes, schools and corporations."

Peter Kastner, an industry analyst with Aberdeen Group, said, "The reference platform answers four market concerns about network computers: price, performance, power, and productivity. The synergy of Digital's StrongARM (microprocessor) and NCI's NC system software will be attractive to the many organizations now evaluating network computing."