David OS/9...................................
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Back in the mists of time - in March 1986 to be exact - there was a little embedded software company in Des Moines called Microware. The founder, Ken Kaplan, thought he had hit paydirt when he heard that Philips had chosen his OS/9 real-time multitasking operating system as the heart of its new CD-i consumer device. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates went ballistic when he learned that his MS-DOS system had been ignored, and tried to buy the company. Kaplan's reply, in essence, was: "Mr Gates, I don't need you. I'm being backed by three of the biggest consumer electronics companies in the world."
As we know, things didn't quite work out as planned. Indeed, there are those who argue that the seeds of CD-i's downfall were sown on that very day. If Bill Gates had not been spurned then things might have been very different. CD-i's lack of success in the consumer market was a blow but Microware soldiered on. Luckily it had other strings to its bow and developed its OS/9-derived DAVID (Digital Audio/Video Interactive Decoder). Ironically in 1995 General Instrument had to turn to Microware and its DAVID after Microsoft fell behind schedule in developing its own television set-top box operating system.
The CD-i slide continued and in August 1995 Philips were forced to take back Microware's share of the partnership in Optimage, the CD-i authoring tools company which was also based in Des Moines. It was clear the direction that Microware was going when Motorola put itself in the frame in the emerging interactive TV market by acquiring 11 per cent of Microware's shares along with the option to acquire another 13 per cent over five years.
By November 1995 Microware had realised that DAVID wasn't skinny enough. It came out with DAVIDLite, "the first open system software package configured specifically for digital video products requiring reduced software size and functionality." Target markets were still cable television, digital direct broadcast satellite and wireless cable networks. It still supported 68000, PowerPC and iAPX-86 chips with full MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. Best of all it ran in 256Kb of ROM and under 128Kb of dynamic RAM. In 1996 DiviCom licensed DAVIDLite for use in its digital television decoders for a range of digital broadcast networks. |
