Frog Design Inc. prototype Network ComputerThe famous Frog Design Inc was apparently responsible for creating the prototype Network Computer that Oracle Corp's Larry Ellison has been showing off in Japan: seems the company has come up with something it is calling Network Computer Operating System or NC-OS that will run on a family of Internet and World Wide Web devices ranging from television set-top boxes to video phones and pagers; although the initial iteration uses the ARM7500 RISC, and NC-OS appears to be based on Acorn Computer Group Pld's RISC OS, it is being designed to be processor-independent and there will inter alia be a version for iAPX-86-based personal computers, with application portability.
Larry Ellison said in Japan that Oracle Corp plans to introduce the Oracle Network Computer around September, at a retail price of $495 for its desktop Oracle Network Computer, and $595 for a portable model; he also said that demand for Internet computers with simplified functions would outpace demand for conventional personal computers by the end of the century; Oracle is seeking a licensing agreement with about 20 computer manufacturers worldwide, several of them Japanese; the modem in the first version will run at 28.8Kbps, Oracle says. By kind permission of Computergram International, Jan 1996 poppy@poppyfields.net |