Microsoft Submits Initial Specifications to Enhance OCAP With Microsoft .NET Technology and Development Tools - May 3, 2004 08:07 AM (PR Newswire) Microsoft TV Division Adds Standards Experts to Continue to Drive Innovation in Cable Industry NEW ORLEANS, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's National Show, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced that it has submitted its initial draft of common language infrastructure (CLI) specifications for the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP), the cable industry's software standard for deploying interactive services to Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs). The announcement demonstrates Microsoft's growing commitment to the development and adoption of advanced digital services by encouraging the market entry of new suppliers. OCAP is part of the OpenCable initiative, which is managed by CableLabs, the cable television industry's nonprofit research and development consortium. To date, CableLabs has issued OCAP versions 1.0 and 2.0. Microsoft and CableLabs have agreed to work together to explore the potential of adding Microsoft(R) .NET CLI to OCAP. The proposed addition of .NET would expand the common runtime platform among a variety of computing devices including set-top boxes and PCs, making home entertainment networking simpler and more compelling to the consumer and creating expanded opportunities for cable operators. Upon reviewing the initial draft of OCAP-CLI, CableLabs will seek comments from a working group of industry experts, which will make recommendations to be incorporated in Microsoft's draft. The incorporation of OCAP-CLI by CableLabs could offer cable operators a choice of development environments, allowing them to take advantage of Microsoft's ongoing investment and innovation of .NET. At the same time, such an extended OCAP specification would be fully backward-compatible, allowing cable operators to leverage and develop their OCAP 1.0 investment in the future. CableLabs is in the process of creating a working group of industry veterans to evaluate and refine the initial OCAP-CLI specifications. Integration of OCAP-CLI into the OCAP specifications will be considered later in the year. As part of the effort to continue to drive the development of industry standards, the Microsoft TV division has added James Van Loo as OCAP program manager and John Mick as group program manager for standards. Van Loo previously worked at Sun Microsystems Inc., where he was instrumental in developing TV standards in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB), including Multimedia Home Platform (MHP), OCAP and Application Configuration Access Protocol (ACAP). Before joining Microsoft TV, Mick was the director of the Software Technology Group at Integrated Device Technology Inc., where he served as the software architect for network packet processing silicon solutions, and managed teams developing simulation models and product hardware and software for OC-192 speed packet processing systems. ... - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41237388 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.