Digital Video APIs for CE appliances...............................
techweb.cmp.com
Posted: 3:00 p.m., EST, 5/15/98
Electronics firms unveil APIs for digital appliances
By Junko Yoshida
NEW YORK - Eight leading consumer electronics companies have unveiled standards for a set of core APIs that would allow digital consumer appliances to be connected in a home network without requiring a PC.
The industry-wide move to support consumer APIs could have far-reaching implications for the design of next-generation consumer electronics systems, for ICs that go into such systems, and for the intelligence and networking abilities built into those systems. Grundig AG, Hitachi Ltd., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Royal Philips Electronics NV, Sharp Corp., Sony Corp., Thomson Multimedia SA and Toshiba Corp. were involved in the creation of the consumer API specs, called the "Home Audio-Video interoperability (HAVi) specification for networking digital AV appliances."
The standard APIs are intended to pave the way for consumer equipment makers to give their digital appliances the connectivity, flexibility and convenience of PC-based alternatives without forcing them to tie their products to Microsoft Corp. Win32 APIs.
The goal of the group's efforts is to give consumers the ability to connect any digital home appliance from any manufacturer in a non-hierarchical network architecture, said Roel Kramer, chief technology officer at Philips Consumer Electronics (Eindhoven, Netherlands).
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