Press Release

March 02, 2000

OTTAWA, Canada - 2 March 2000: Espial, the leader in Internet appliance solutions, today announced they have been selected from a field of hundreds of candidates as a finalist in the EDN's 10th Annual Innovation of the Year Awards Competition. This exclusive awards program, sponsored by EDN Magazine, is dedicated to honoring truly outstanding engineering products in the electronics industry.

Espial's Embedded Development Suite includes Espial Espresso v3.0; the industry's only PersonalJava GUI application framework optimized for the constraints of limited resource environments. Espial Architect v2.0, the industry's only complete development solution for Java-based smart devices and Espial DeviceTop, a universal content delivery platform for the next-generation of Internet ready Java-enabled smart devices. Espial's embedded development suite is ideal for the development and deployment of service-ready smart devices.

"In the Internet device market, successful OEM products will deliver a compelling user experience, customized look and feel and a superior time-to-market." stated Mal Raddalgoda, senior director of strategic marketing at Espial. "Espial's embedded development suite provides this platform by enabling device manufacturers to bring such an Internet appliance to the end consumer. Espial provides the development tools and Internet browser and email applications that consumer electronics device manufacturers and content developers require to offer a total end-to-end service delivery strategy."

Products and technologies qualifying for a 1999 EDN Innovation award must have been introduced and commercially marketed for January 1, 1999 through December 31, 1999. Nine major product and technology areas were eligible for consideration: analog ICs and discrete semiconductors; components, hardware and interconnects; computers and peripherals; digital ICs; EDA tools; embedded computing; microprocessors; power sources; and test and measurement. A panel of EDN's technical editors selected finalist products in each category. Espial had its embedded development tools selected in the embedded computing category.

Winners of the 10th Annual Innovation of the Year Awards will be chosen by EDN's worldwide readers through an online ballot on the EDN Access Web site (www.ednmag.com). We encourage you to visit the EDN Web site to review the magazine's comments on our embedded development tools. Winning products will be announced at a black-tie awards banquet on April 10, 2000 in San Jose, California and in the April 27, 2000 issue of EDN.

EDN, the premier design magazine of the electronics industry, is published by Cahners Business Information. Headquartered in Newton, MA, it serves the vital information needs of design engineers and engineering managers worldwide. The EDN franchise includes EDN, EDN Europe, EDN Asia, EDN China, and EDN Access, the EOEM's premier publication web site.

Pricing and Availability

Espial's embedded development tools are currently shipping. Free evaluation copies of Espial Espresso v3.0, Espial Architect 2.0 and Espial DeviceTop are available for download at the Espial web site at http://www.espial.com. For further information please contact your sales representative at sales@espial.com or at +1 972 361 8080. In Europe, please email saleseurope@espial.com or at +44 1793 698047