Multiple NEC Divisions to Consider MicroServer as "Building Block" For Their Web-Enabled Products
NAPERVILLE, Ill., Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- NEC Corp. (Nasdaq: NIPNY - news) has partnered with Spyglass Inc. (Nasdaq: SPYG - news) to provide a solution to adding Web accessibility to its office equipment by licensing Spyglass MicroServer, a small footprint, embedded Web server. NEC's Microcomputer Software Engineering Laboratories is currently evaluating Spyglass MicroServer for a number of potential office equipment and other non-PC device applications.
Embedding Spyglass MicroServer makes it possible to use the Internet to manage, configure and perform remote diagnostics on nearly any non-PC device, including those with limited memory and processing power. Any off-the-shelf Web browser can communicate with Spyglass MicroServer, allowing users to monitor and control the product in which it has been embedded. The technology makes it possible to bring traditionally non-networked devices, such as copiers, on-line, and to add Internet connectivity to products and systems that have used other proprietary or needlessly complex communications networks (See diagram at http://www.spyglass.com/graphics/35mm.ppt).
``We need to add specialized Internet functionality to a number of devices without negatively impacting our development schedule,'' said Hiroshi Monden, general manager of Microcomputer Software Engineering Laboratories. ``Spyglass MicroServer is a standards-based 'building block' upon which we can create a custom solution for each of our heterogeneous products. Spyglass truly understands the challenges we face in the very competitive office equipment marketplace and is flexible enough to help us solve them.''
Spyglass MicroServer offers a non-proprietary solution for managing a Web- enabled device with Easy Content, a new method for creating and integrating MicroServer applications by separating the ``Internet'' programming from the ``device'' programming. Customers can use off-the-shelf Web page authoring software to create HTML pages that relate dynamic device-specific data, such as page count in copiers, to tags embedded within the HTML. This page is then automatically converted to C code through a simple utility provided by Spyglass. Once converted it is ready for integration into the device, resulting in savings in development time and costs. Easy Content helps NEC solve a problem plaguing office equipment manufacturers -- cutting time to market -- while still bringing a new level of innovation to their products and to the marketplace.
``NEC is a visionary company that has proven it can stay ahead of its competition because it is willing to explore new and exciting technology to improve the functionality and value of its products,'' said Michael Conley, managing director of Spyglass Asia-Pacific. ``But, they also understand they must differentiate their products and that's what Spyglass can offer -- core solutions that give NEC the ability to customize products to offer distinctive competitive advantages.''
Spyglass MicroServer is a small footprint embedded Web server that enables full HTML page-based monitoring, management, and control of non-PC devices using its innovative Easy Content facility, which allows users to interface with the device using any standard browser. It delivers standards-based Web server functionality to multiple concurrent users in as little as 36KB of RAM. Typical uses include providing operational or status information to a user, updating a device's internal database through information collected via HTML forms, or initiating a device action, such as running a diagnostic utility, based on a user request. Developed specifically for the embedded systems market, Spyglass MicroServer has already been ported to many of the leading real-time operating systems.
Terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed, but typically Spyglass' licensing model includes initial licensing fees, a support contract and royalties based on the deployment of its technology in the customer's products. In some cases, a Professional Services contract is included, which calls for Spyglass to provide integration services and/or other customization work.
Spyglass Inc.
Spyglass (Nasdaq: SPYG - news) is the leading provider of software and services to make non-PC devices work with the Web. Market leading device manufacturers that have licensed products and consulting services from Spyglass, include Xerox Corp. [NYSE:XRX - news] for a new line of copiers; GTE for a new line of Web screen phones; IBM Corp. for their line of network computers (NCs); and Thomson Consumer Electronics (owners of the RCA, ProScan and GE brands) for a new generation of RCA television set-top boxes. Spyglass headquarters are located at 1240 East Diehl Road, Naperville, Illinois 60563; telephone: 630-245-6500; fax: 630-245-6693; press email inquiries: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.spyglass.com
Spyglass and the Spyglass logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Spyglass, Inc. Mosaic is a trademark of the University of Illinois. (Other products and brand names are trademarks of registered trademarks of their respective companies.) This release contains information about management's future expectations, plans and prospects which constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors which are discussed in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 1996, which is on file with the SEC.
SOURCE: Spyglass Inc.