Access and Shikoku Electric Power Form an Alliance
13 October 1998
Access and Shikoku Electric Power Form an Alliance to Develop Embedded Client Software for Mobile Devices and Server Software for Home Electronics Control
TOKYO--Oct. 12, 1998--Access Co., Ltd. (Tokyo) and Shikoku Electric Power Co., Inc. (Kagawa, Japan) agreed to develop a remote control system for consumer mobile information appliances with Shikoku's OpenPLANET, an integrated remote monitor and control system, and Access' powerful embedded Internet software technologies.
The systems will allow users to remotely control consumer electronics devices from outside their homes by cellular phones, PHS (Japanese small cellular phone), PDAs (personal digital assistant), car navigation systems, and other mobile devices. Access will also co-develop with Shikoku Electric Power the electric power meter server with Access' embedded software technologies.
OpenPLANET by Shikoku Electric Power
OpenPLANET is the next-generation integrated system of remote controlling and monitoring via the Internet for any electronic devices from anywhere and anytime. OpenPLANET increases safety, convenience and comfort for users, as well as conserving energy and natural resources to protect the natural environment of the information society.
OpenPLANET has been considered as remote control and monitor systems at various factories and buildings, and the technical testing for home use has just been completed. Home consumer electronics products with electrical power connection are controlled by a server integrated with the electric power meter.
This server is connected to the Internet and the home electronics products can be accessed from anywhere in the world. The communication method is based on the mobile data communication such as cellular phones and mobile information appliances.
Applications of Remote Control of Consumer Electronics Products
Access' embedded Internet technologies including NetFront(TM) browser for consumer electronics; Compact NetFront(TM) for small devices; and JV-Lite(TM), a Java Virtual Machine compliant module for consumer electronics, will be integrated into home remote control electronics with mobile devices via OpenPLANET.
The browser software and JV-Lite are client software embedded in mobile devices that can communicate with the electric power meter server to execute Java applications for the control of home electronics.
For example, users can operate the air conditioner and boil water in the bath by a cellular phone or inform home your current location from your car using the car navigation system. Additionally, the integrated technology can be applied to an agent application server and a remote monitoring system for industrial use.
Future Development
Based on Access' compact software technologies, Access and Shikoku Electric Power plan to jointly develop a small and low-priced electric power meter server aimed at mass production. Low-priced and compact size are the key success factors for the home market.
Advantage of Java Technology
Java programming language is hardware independent and ideal to run applications which control various home electronics products, for example, to upgrade client side software through network oriented content and services.
Today, Java is still not a practical solution for consumer electronics because of its large memory requirements. Access' JV-Lite solves the memory problem with small memory footprint and allows Java language to run in PDAs, car navigation systems, dedicated terminals, cellular phones and PHS.
Shikoku Electric Power promotes a plan to locate the electric power meter server to home starting year 2000 after completing the testing. In the near future, Shikoku Electric Power, in cooperation with other electric power companies, will build a new global network which covers national households.
Access and Shikoku Electric Power will cooperate to develop a global network for home, content and service providers, and intelligent mobile devices. Also, both companies will promote standard specifications and API design for realistic system developments as well as conducting research with related companies.
About ACCESS
Access, headquartered in Tokyo, with an office in Santa Clara, Calif., is a leading Internet software company with its flagship products NetFront and Compact NetFront. Since its inception, Access has established close working relationships with leading worldwide consumer electronics companies.
Over one million units of software licenses have been shipped and adopted by more than 30 major consumer appliances makers for TVs, set top boxes, word processors, PDAs, car navigation systems, cellular and PHS phones, and dedicated terminals.
NetFront 2.0
NetFront 2.0 is a modularized, comprehensive embedded software suite for designing consumer Internet appliances. NetFront offers system designers a cost-effective, turnkey solution with software modules and open APIs that consist of a WWW browser, Email, PPP, HTML parser, HTTP, TCP/IP, FTP, SMTP, POP and other network communication modules.
It supports the latest WWW standard specifications. Other complementary modules include JV-Lite(TM), a clean-room Java compliant Virtual Machine module; encryption module for information appliances (Crypt module) and compact Secure Socket Layer (SSL) module; and Internet Personal Information Manager (PIM) function.
JV-Lite
JV-Lite is a clean-room Java compliant Virtual Machine (VM) module with small class library. Since JV-Lite is a Java compliant VM, developers can easily use commercial development tools for any Java applications development. JV-Lite and class library can be embedded in ROM and JV-Lite supports various Real-time OS because of its platform independent design.
CompactHTML
Access submitted the original markup language Compact HTML for small information appliances jointly with Matsushita Electric, NEC, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Electric, and Sony to World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Access released Compact HTML-based browser called Compact NetFront, which will be integrated into cellular phones and released in late 1998.
Notes to Editors: NetFront and JV-Lite are registered trademarks of Access Co., Ltd. in Japan.
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
Other corporate and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.