Hewlett-Packard Co’s Interactive Broadband Products, part of its Home Products Division which supplies interactive electronics for the home, has chosen Alameda, California- based Wind River Systems Inc’s VxWorks real-time operating system for use in its QuickBurst cable modem. QuickBurst will provide access to the same on-line services currently offered by telephone modems, but at network speeds thousands of times faster by connecting a personal computer to a standard coaxial cable television line. Hewlett- Packard hopes QuickBurst will become the core technology of the interactive home. It intends to sell the modem to broadband operators that could then offer it to their subscribers. The higher speeds will make the on-line environment more multidimensional, entertaining and user- friendly, reckons the company. QuickBurst will enable cable operators to offer subscribers high-speed access to services such as electronic mail, bulletin boards, special interest fora, local community-based services and the facility to work from home. VxWorks, part of Wind River’s Tornado development environment, will be the embedded operating system for controlling internal modem operations that manage the protocol and network management services. Its scalability will enable Hewlett-Packard to create a system that can grow with the operator’s data services, thereby protecting its initial investment in the system. Wind River’s development environment simplifies code development, enabling Hewlett- Packard to bring new cable modem products to market more quickly.
