European Telecommunications Standards Institute Adopts Microsoft's Common
Language Infrastructure Platform
CANNES, France, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at the 3GSM World
Congress 2002, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced support for the GSM
Association's M-Services Phase II Initiative. Microsoft's active
participation in the initiative and the association's Wireless LAN Task Force
signals the company's continuous efforts to foster open mobile standards and
technologies. Microsoft also announced that the European Telecommunications
Standards Institute (ETSI), a not-for-profit organization that plays a major
role in developing a wide range of standards and other technical documentation
in Europe and worldwide, has incorporated the standardized Microsoft Common
Language Infrastructure (CLI) Compact Profile. Microsoft's contribution and
active participation in open mobile standards build on well over 10 years of
commitment to creating open platforms in software and on the Internet.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO )
As part of the GSM Association's M-Services Initiative, Microsoft is
augmenting several aspects of the association's Phase II specifications to
advance a single, ubiquitous computing experience regardless of programming
languages, devices, operating systems or network infrastructure. The
M-Services Phase II specifications provide a more open architecture by
allowing the Microsoft(R) .NET Compact Framework to be federated and
interoperable, which affords next-generation connectivity and mobile device
access to Web services.
"Our participation in the M-Services Initiative and ETSI's adoption of the
.NET Compact Framework and CLI are significant steps toward our vision of
interoperability across platforms and devices and extends the Internet from
'fixed and mobile with connecting bridges' into a single computing
experience," said Michael Wehrs, director of technology and standards for the
Mobility Solutions Planning Group at Microsoft. "An open platform will be
critical as the continued advancement of wireless networks and mobile devices
brings data to an increasing number of mobile professionals and consumers
using rich-client devices such as wireless PDAs and smart phones."
"Microsoft's contributions are well-reflected in the GSM Association's
goal to enable a new level of interoperability and consistency of service
delivery through the mobile Internet. Microsoft has contributed input to our
efforts to provide clear guidance to handset manufacturers and software
developers on the needs of consumers, embodied in the M-Services program, for
example," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association.
Microsoft has a long-standing commitment to driving interoperability
through participation in industry standards bodies:
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
The approval of Microsoft's .NET CLI Compact Profile by ETSI further
underscores Microsoft's contributions to open standards. Microsoft's CLI
environment is a programming-language-neutral platform that enables
applications to be written in different programming languages and run on many
kinds of hardware. This is a key component of the standards-based,
multilanguage .NET Platform to enable software developers to quickly build and
deploy powerful, interoperable XML Web services.
The CLI Compact Profile specifies a minimal set of class libraries,
supporting both common runtime library features as well as Web services
infrastructure, including HTTP, TCP/IP, XML and SOAP.
To help Java language developers make their applications widely available
and provide native access to the .NET Framework and XML Web services,
Microsoft recently introduced its Java Language Conversion Assistant (JLCA), a
tool that provides a smooth transition for building XML Web services on the
Microsoft .NET Platform. The JLCA automatically converts most existing Java
language source code into C#, migrating language syntax and library calls.
"Microsoft's facilitation of open mobile standards is especially
significant given the recent Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) organization
announcement," Wehrs said. This cross-industry initiative is designed to
accelerate the development and deployment of interoperable Web services across
a variety of platforms, applications and programming languages.
Bluetooth SIG
As further evidence of Microsoft's participation in standards bodies, Dr.
Michael Foley, technical evangelist for Windows, has been elected chair of the
Bluetooth SIG. The Bluetooth SIG, composed of leaders in the
telecommunications, computing and network industries, is helping drive the
development and advancement of Bluetooth technology and bring it to market.
In addition to chairing the SIG overall, Microsoft is active in or chairs a
number of the subcommittees including these:
-- Host Controller Interface working group
-- Human Interface Device working group
-- Bluetooth Architecture board
-- Printing and PAN working group
JVT, MPEG and ITU
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and the International
Telecommunications Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T)
recently announced Joint Video Team (JVT), a next-generation project to
enhance video-coding performance, and named Gary Sullivan, software design
engineer at Microsoft, to chair the JVT.
Sullivan also chairs MPEG's video group which includes MPEG-1, MPEG-2,
MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 and the video compression standards work in the ITU-T.
Microsoft at 3GSM World Congress 2002
-- Exhibit Stand L21, Hall 4
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services
and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company
offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people
through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
NOTE: Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the
United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the
trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.microsoft.com
Photo Notes:
NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, 1-888-776-6555 or +1-212-782-2840
CONTACT:
Miller/Shandwick Technologies, +44 (0) 207
240 8666, or emeamsmobility@miller.shandwick.com, for Microsoft
Corp.; or Michelle Hinrichs, +1-503-443-7000, or
michelleh@wagged.com, or Rapid Response Team, +1-503-443-7070, or
rrt@wagged.com, both of Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft Corp.
NOTE TO EDITORS: If you are interested in viewing additional
information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft's corporate
information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were
correct at time of publication, but may since have changed.
|
