Novell Demonstrates NEST Software, Linking Televisions, Fax Machines And Printers Via NetWare

Press Release

Salt Lake City, UTAH -- March 22, 1995 -- At its annual BrainShare conference, Novell today demonstrated implementations of Novell Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) to more than 6000 attending developers and industry partners. NEST software lets companies build network capabilities into traditional computing devices such as printers, or non-traditional devices including copiers, fax machines, building controls, televisions, phones, home appliances and even automobiles.

Through NEST, users of non-traditional computing devices will be able to take advantage of the communications, collaboration and information delivery power of network computing. Bringing connections to these devices is a key initiative in Novell's goal of 1 billion network connections by the year 2000. Numerous industry leaders, including Xerox, Intel, Ricoh, Canon, Fujitsu, Castelle, QMS, Lexmark, and Andover Controls are currently developing NEST-enabled products. The NEST SDK was announced and shipped last February.

#NEST has received tremendous support from partners in the computing industry and from markets as diverse as factory automation and home security," said Darl McBride, vice president and general manager of Novell's Extended Networks Division. #NEST opens doors to electronic commerce and global communications for the home, the workplace, manufacturing and mobile computing by making computer connections as pervasive as the telephone."

Novell demonstrated three uses of NEST today:

Automatically Routing Faxes over the Network

Novell demonstrated technology that connects fax machines to local- and wide-area networks. The technology routes incoming faxes across networks to users' desktop computers and local printers, and provides polling capabilities for fax-back functions. Faxes can also be automatically forwarded when individuals travel. The technology provides relay broadcasting, allowing faxes addressed to multiple parties to be sent once over the WAN for distribution at the local network, minimizing traffic. Platform-independence lets virtually any fax machine take advantage of these advanced capabilities.

NEST-enabled Set-top Box

NEST software lets a television set-top box act as a node on a computer network, turning the worlds' vast cable broadcast infrastructure into a powerful multimedia computer network. NEST gives a traditional cable-tv connection new, two-way communications capabilities, allowing viewers to access a wide array of interactive services including video-on-demand, travel reservations, banking, shopping and electronic mail through their television settop box. Communications over broadband cable-tv connections will provide far greater speed and reliability than currently available modem/telephone connections. Novell's graphical navigator technology, code-named Corsair, provides a simple user interface, allowing people to browse the network options of their choice.

QMS Multitasking Network Printer Architecture

QMS is integrating NEST with their multitasking CrownNET network printing architecture. NEST provides QMS with the connections they need to implement advanced NetWare 4.x functionality, including Netware Directory Services and security. Previously, printer companies had to engineer these key operating system components on their own, requiring significant development resources. Because NEST ensures that their printers and other devices can take advantage of new NetWare features, QMS is able to focus resources on the performance and competitive features of their products.