Jan. 6, 2000 - In an effort to make it easier for consumers to take advantage of the networked world, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced that they have formed a consumer market alliance to develop an open, standards-based architecture for Internet home gateway systems and technologies.

Sun and Cisco will market the jointly developed architecture to consumer electronic and appliance manufacturers for use in networked devices and products. The architecture, which will support the Open Service Gateway Initiative (OSGi) standard and Sun's Java technology, will be integrated into Cisco's new Internet Home Gateway series of products.

A prototype of Cisco's Internet Home Gateway product using Java technology is being showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in the Sun, GTE, Cisco Connected Family^SM Demonstration Suite in Sun's .com Home (Room N242, 2nd level, Las Vegas Convention Center). The Connected Family Suite will show how Cisco's offerings, using Java technology, provide consumers with high-speed Internet access and the ability to connect several computers, phones, printers, faxes and other Internet-ready devices in their home. In addition, the Cisco offerings will give consumers the flexibility to remotely manage their home while at work, set Internet usage guidelines for their children, and deploy integrated data, voice and video services such as video-on-demand in their home.

"This partnership between Sun and Cisco will make it easier for consumers to .com their homes, connecting to a broad range of information, communication and services through a variety of networked devices based on Sun's consumer technologies," said Scott McNealy, chairman and chief executive officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "In addition, the jointly developed architecture will give device manufacturers an ideal opportunity to incorporate network capabilities into their products."

According to John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco Systems, "Our partnership with Sun has the power to fundamentally change the way Internet services are delivered to the consumer market. Our joint effort will deliver a single connection to the home for high-speed Internet access and help create a new breed of Internet-enabled devices for the home."