Specification Designed to Enable High-Performance Games and Animated Content
                For Interactive TV and Broadband Set Top Boxes

    NEW ORLEANS, July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Industry leaders in the interactive
television marketplace are collaborating to deliver the Broadcast Compositing
Library (BroadcastCL) 1.0 Specification for interactive set top and media
devices. The working group includes 3Dlabs, ATI, Broadcom, Metabyte,
Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), Sony and Wind River. The specification, a
family of inter-related low-level media APIs, is designed to enable a new
generation of rich media, open-standards, cross-platform content such as games
and interactive animated media on new media computing devices such as
interactive TV set tops. It is designed to support a range of set-top devices
with a consistent architecture, from 2D-only to full 3D-capable devices, while
seamlessly integrating multiple media types like video, animation and text.

    About the BroadcastCL Initiative
    The release of the BroadcastCL 1.0 specification is the culmination of an
18-month effort involving leading experts from the digital media, game and ITV
industries. In addition to core specification work, the initiative also
included development of device-driver level code, interfaces and test suites,
extensive profiling of games and media runtimes; capability analysis of
consumer-priced set top hardware; and assessments of performance and feature
requirements of higher-level media-enabled Web and ITV content standards.
    Implementations from multiple vendors based on the BroadcastCL 1.0
specification are already in development, and are expected to be available as
early as third quarter, calendar year 2000. Portions of the specification will
be submitted for consideration by appropriate standards bodies. API components
include:

    -- Surfacing and Core Marking API -- an API that seamlessly integrates
       surfaces for multiple media types
    -- 3D Profile Marking Engines -- a minimal profile of the OpenGL(R) API
       tailored to the needs of interactive set tops, as well as a full
       profile of the OpenGL(R) API
    -- Surface Assembler API -- a compositing engine interface for assembling
       and displaying multiple surfaces on screen

    BroadcastCL is designed to integrate seamlessly with multiple other
rendering APIs such as UGL, and both a C++ and Java(TM) technology binding
will be provided.

    Availability
    Interested parties are invited to review the specification and to
participate in the BroadcastCL initiative at http://www.broadcastcl.org. Interested
parties are encouraged to provide their comments on the Public Review Draft by
August 30, 2000.

    Among the Founding Participants of BroadcastCL

    3Dlabs
    "3Dlabs is a strong believer in the convergence of 2D, 3D and video media
types to enable compelling content on Interactive TV and other embedded
platforms," said Neil Trevett, vice president of marketing at 3Dlabs. "We are
very supportive of BroadcastCL as it is a strong technical solution and the
only industry initiative addressing advanced digital media content delivery
and acceleration on a wide range of hardware delivery platforms."

    ATI
    "ATI has contributed key resources to the development of BroadcastCL,"
said Dan Eiref, director of marketing, Convergence Products Group, ATI
Technologies. "ATI has already implemented BroadcastCL on current advanced
digital set-top boxes, and is committed to enabling this class of
functionality for content developers."

    Broadcom
    "Broadcom is pleased to be a core contributor to BroadcastCL", said
Tim Lindenfelser, VP Broadband Communications Business Unit, of Broadcom.
"BroadcastCL represents the kind of rich video, graphics, and 3D functionally
that our customers need and that Broadcom will deliver to enable compelling
new interactive services for embedded consumer solutions such as set-top boxes
and other entertainment delivery systems."

    Metabyte
    "We became one of the founding members of BroadcastCL because of our
belief that the industry needs a small foot-print cross-platform graphics API
which delivers 2D and 3D functions that closely match the capabilities of
current graphics chips. Metabyte's Wicked3D division is developing a
device-independent implementation of the BroadcastCL 1.0 on a PC platform and
will offer ports to popular set-top-box environments," said Manu Mehta,
President and CEO of Metabyte, Inc.

    Sony
    "SONY is committed to bringing the rich media experience to the consumer
across a broad range of devices," said Rodger Lea, Vice President of Sony's
Distributed Systems Laboratory. "We have been a major contributor to the
BroadcastCL architecture, and our technology initiatives are proving to be a
significant driving force in a new generation of full-motion interfaces."

    Sun
    "Sun Microsystems' business philosophy is centered around open standards,"
said Reed Hornberger, Senior Director of Enabling Technologies at Sun
Microsystems. "The BroadcastCL specification, with Java(TM) technology
bindings, will enable exciting and lucrative new content opportunities for the
gaming, entertainment and interactive TV communities."

    Wind River
    "Wind River is committed to providing technology that allows our customers
to more easily develop next-generation, smart connected devices," said
Dave Sheaffer, senior director of product marketing for Wind River's Platforms
business unit. "BroadcastCL will integrate with Wind River's 2D graphic stack
and multi-media framework UGL, and will enable new hardware-accelerated 3D
functionalities for customers developing VxWorks(R)-based digital set-top
devices."

    About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
    Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- The Network Is The
Computer(TM) -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc., to its position as a
leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that
power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to dot-com their businesses.
With $15.7 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than
170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com .
    NOTE:  Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo and Java are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other
countries.
    OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
    All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective
owners.

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