Press Release

September 28, 1999

OTTAWA, Canada - 28 September 1998: Espial Group Inc. has announced a total solution for Java technology-based consumer devices that will significant reduce the time to market for Information appliances utilizing the PersonalJava™ platform. Espial Group's "Get there first" solutions have been developed to assist companies in the challenging task of developing software for resource-constrained environments.

Espial™ Espresso is a rich user interface framework. Espial Architect is a visual user interface builder. Portico™ is a productivity component suite which includes DeviceTop™, a web browser, an email client, and a personal assistant. Together, these products provide a total software solution for Java technology-based information appliances.

"Java technology continues to demonstrate its momentum in the consumer and embedded market through PersonalJava™," says Samir Mitra, director of marketing and business development at Sun Microsystems' Consumer and Embedded. "Espial Espresso provides developers with a high performance, rich user interface framework for PersonalJava. Its small footprint and complete feature set make it possible to add richer functionality to Java applications written for the PersonalJava environment in a significantly shorter period of time."

"Get there first"

Espial Group's "Get there first" solutions enable information appliance and consumer device manufacturers to develop embedded Java software that offers both high performance and rich functionality. Together, Espial Espresso, Espial Architect, and Portico provide the most complete PersonalJava software solution for consumer devices.

Customization features are a part of both the Portico productivity suite and the Espial development tools. This flexibility provides companies using these products with the ability to tailor the look and feel of their DeviceTop, applets, and applications. Espial Group's user-focused human factors approach is evident in their easy-to-use "Get there first" software solutions.

"Our total PersonalJava solutions provide device manufacturers with a significant advantage in getting to market first with a superb product", says Jaison Dolvane, President of Espial Group Inc. "We have introduced user-centered, super small, high performance solutions for Internet appliances which have been tested and proven. Our complete software solutions will see Java technology-based information appliances reach market much earlier than originally expected".

Espial™ Espresso

Espial Espresso is a set of Java technology-based user interface components optimized for the constraints of minimal resource environments. Espial Espresso, a 100 % Pure Java™certified toolkit, has a small memory footprint and diverse visual display support. The toolkit implements Espial Group's image resource management technology to optimize overall memory consumption. The toolkit also boasts user interface components that are highly usable and marketable.

This sophistication and flexibility, coupled with a maximum size of 175K, makes Espial™ Espresso an ideal candidate for consumer applications developed for thin clients like PDAs, hand-held computers, set-top boxes, smart phones, mobile devices, etc.

Espial™ Architect

Espial™ Architect is a visual user interface development environment for consumer devices. This layout-based User Interface builder incorporates special features targeted towards application development for Java technology-based information appliances. By directly interfacing with Espial Espresso, Espial Architect ensures the development of sophisticated performance-oriented applications. Advanced features include on-screen consumer device layering, JDK1.1 and PersonalJava compliant code generation, portable user-interface file formats for easier collaborative development, and support for creating applets, applications, and re-usable components.

Portico™ Productivity Suite

Portico™ Productivity suite includes a customizable DeviceTop which can launch applications, upgrade software, and support various input devices. Also included is a full-featured Java web browser, an email client, and a personal assistant complete with an address book, calendar, and appointment manager. Like Espial Espresso, these components have an extremely small footprint, are extremely easy to use, flexible, and robust.