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ACCESS Develops Multimedia Extension Module for NetFront™ v3.0 Browser

SMIL SVG Compatibility Enables Browser to Play Multimedia Content

CeBIT 2003, Hanover, Germany – March 11, 2003 – ACCESS (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813), a leading supplier of embedded software for mobile telephones, PDAs, Internet appliances, car navigation systems and other non-PC devices, today announced the development of a multimedia extension module for its latest browser, NetFront^™v3.0.

NetFront v3.0 Multimedia Extension contains a (SMIL) player, enabling the integration of text, image, voice and animation. SMIL synchronization allows automatic play of multimedia content such as movies.The multimedia extension also contains a (SVG) viewer which supports the display of SVG vector images and optimizes the display of content in relation to screen size by enlarging or reducing the SVG vector image content.

The multimedia extension module has been designed so that it may be installed in information appliances with limited hardware resources such as mobile phones. The SMIL player or SVG viewer themselves can be installed independently, allowing customized installation to meet specific needs of information appliance makers, or the easy addition of these applications to appliances already installed with NetFront v3.0 browser.

The multimedia extension allows the NetFront v3.0 browser to be integrated in mobile phones with rich content capability, as well as multimedia appliances such as DVD players, digital TVs, and hard disc recorders.

Up until now, ACCESS has integrated numerous third-party multimedia plug-in applications into its NetFront browsers, including RealAudio^® and RealVideo^® from RealNetworks, Helix DNA Client, the core drive engine of the universal media player RealOneTM Player, and Mascot Capsule^® Engine, a 3-D polygon engine from HI. With the addition of NetFront v3.0 Multimedia Extension, end-users can experience richer and more interesting multimedia content and content providers can use NetFront v3.0 as a multimedia content platform.

Demonstrations of NetFront v3.0 with the multimedia extension for Nokia mobile phones and PCs will be shown at ACCESS’ booth (Hall 12, A46) at CeBIT 2003, the world’s largest comprehensive IT exhibition held March 12 – 19 in Hanover, Germany.

NetFront v3.0 Multimedia Extension functions and characteristics

SMIL player
SMIL Basic Compliant
Movie-like experience. The core of XML parser shares NetFront browser technology
Seamless operation with HTML browser functions of NetFront v3.0
engines of CSS and ECMA Script can be shared
When NetFront v3.0 has already been installed, additional implementation of the SMIL player can easily be accomplished.

SVG viewer
SVG Tiny Compliant
Optimizing SVG content according to the screen size of various terminals
It is possible to enlarge or reduce SVG content when displaying the content.
The basic portion of XML parser is common to the NetFront browser with proven records.
Seamless operation with HTML browser functions of NetFront v3.0
ECMA Script engine can be shared.
Control from ECMA Script within HTML can be conducted.
When NetFront v3.0 has already been installed, additional implementation of the SVG viewer can be easily accomplished.

About NetFront v3.0
The NetFront suite of browser technologies is embedded in almost 80 million devices spanning 191 different product lines including PDAs, game consoles, digital cameras, digital televisions, and mobile phones, including NTT DoCoMo’s handsets for i-mode world-wide as well as FOMA, NTTDoCoMo’s 3G service. ACCESS’ NetFront v3.0 browser conforms to the latest W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards including CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), DHTML (Dynamic HTML) and also to the WAP 2.0 specification, which enables resource constrained, non-PC hardware to browse the Internet. PDAs, including Zaurus SL-A300 / B500 / C700 produced by Sharp and CLIE PEG-NX70V / NX60 / NZ90 produced by Sony also have ACCESS browsers pre-installed. ACCESS has also commenced online sales of Netfront v3.0 for PocketPC Japanese language version for Pocket PC individual users on November 25, 2002. (The English language version of NetFront v3.0 for PocketPC has been available from “Handango” since December, 2002) Additionally, ACCESS provided its core browser technology based on NetFront v3.0 to Palm Source Inc. for their Palm OS^® 5 browser

About ACCESS
ACCESS Co. Ltd. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4813) is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with ACCESS Systems America, Inc., its US subsidiary, in Fremont, California, ACCESS Systems Europe GmbH, its German subsidiary, in Oberhausen, Germany, and with ACCESS (Beijing) Co., Ltd, its Chinese subsidiary, in Beijing, China. ACCESS is a leading global provider of software and services for IP-based consumer electronic devices. ACCESS’ embedded NetFront^™ and Compact NetFront^™ browsers power 191 different commercial products worldwide including mobile phones, digital televisions, set-top boxes, game consoles, PDAs, car navigation systems, web phones, kiosk terminals and intranet terminals. ACCESS’ Compact NetFront microbrowser is most widely deployed in phones for NTT DoCoMo’s popular i-mode^™ service. To date, almost 80 million ACCESS software licenses have shipped from more than 40 major Internet device manufactures (As of November, 2002). ACCESS was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market on February 26, 2001. More information is available at www.access.co.jp/english/.

ACCESS is a registered trademark in Japan. NetFront, Compact NetFront are registered trademarks of ACCESS Co., Ltd. in Japan. NetFront is a registered trademark of NetFront Communications, Inc. in the United States and is used under license. i-mode is a registered trademark of NTT DoCoMo, Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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