Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) and ACCESS Co., Ltd have signed a comprehensive licensing agreement for ACCESS' Compact NetFront, NetFront Internet browser and related technologies for use in wireless communication and information devices, such as cellular phones and pagers. Through this agreement, ACCESS' Compact HTML browsing technology is added to Motorola's expanding portfolio of wireless Internet technologies. The Compact HTML browsing technology is a key feature of the Compact NetFront browser, and is an important component in the success of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode phones.
"We are pleased to add the world's most successful wireless browser technology from ACCESS to Motorola's competitive portfolio," said Steve Bunch, vice president Technical Staff and director of Software Architecture and Systems Engineering, Personal Communications Sector, Motorola. "By leveraging the open Compact HTML standard, Motorola will be able to better serve developer and device user's needs, and enable wireless operators targeting the wireless Internet to quickly deploy services."
"We are very excited about the opportunity to work closely with Motorola, a clear leader in innovative wireless communications and semiconductor devices," stated Toru Arakawa, founder and CEO of ACCESS. "The next few years will be very exciting as new wireless devices will bring us Internet access in many new ways. We look forward to teaming with Motorola to jointly develop many innovative new wireless Internet access technologies."
>From Handsets to Semiconductors
Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS) plans to bundle the NetFront/Compact NetFront software products with their DigitalDNA(TM) solutions, including the M-CORE(TM), ARM(R), PowerPC(TM), and ColdFire(R) processor families and the popular Dragonball(TM) multi-purpose integrated processor. "By adding ACCESS' i-mode technology to its portfolio, SPS is now in a unique position to supply the needs of the world's most advanced wireless Internet device manufacturers," said Anne-Marie Larkin, vice president and director, Wireless Software Applications and Services, Semiconductor Products Sector, Motorola. "The NetFront and Compact NetFront browser products will enable Motorola to serve our customers needs well in both wireless and other embedded markets."
The Compact NetFront Micro-Browser
ACCESS' Compact NetFront micro browser is the industry's first and most popular micro browser based on the Compact HTML standard, which has been proven in more than 10 million of NTT DoCoMo's i- mode phones in Japan. Designed from scratch for resource- constrained environments and requiring just 300 KB ROM and 150 KB RAM, the Compact NetFront browser supports almost all major functions in HTML 4.0.
ACCESS has been a leader in establishing standards for micro browsers. ACCESS led the effort to propose the Compact HTML standard to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). ACCESS has been and will continue to be an active participant in the W3C mobile working group to standardize xHTML Basic, the next-generation mark-up language for mobile/wireless devices. ACCESS currently is developing the next generation of Compact NetFront to support the xHTML Basic standard, IPv6 featured wireless TCP/IP, in addition to the next generation version of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) specification standard.
The NetFront Embedded Internet Browser
Motorola also licensed ACCESS' standard NetFront browser, a compact yet powerful embedded Internet browser that is ideal for Internet TVs, personal digital assistants (PDAs), set-top boxes, car navigation systems, video game consoles and Internet kiosks. NetFront's browser kernel is less than 270 KB of code and fits in one megabyte of ROM and 2 megabytes of RAM. It supports the full HTML 3.2 specification and selected portions of HTML 4.0. It supports frames, JavaScript, cookies, web printing and multilingual capabilities. Optional additional modules include Internet mail, Japanese language input kits, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) capabilities, Java Virtual Machine, animation plug-ins and more.
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