Sun and Cisco team up in .com home

The most aggressive force behind the connected home movement is Sun

Microsystems which unveiled its .com Home strategy. The company's .com Home

exhibit guided visitors through a concept home with computers and other state of

the art electronics available in virtually everything from the coffee maker to

the doorbell. Sun's .com Home program combines its Java and Jini operating

systems with networking technology from Cisco and the LonWorks home appliance OS

from Echelon of Palo Alto.

"People like to talk about everyBODY getting connected to the Internet,

but actually, the bigger market is getting everyTHING connected to the

Internet," said Sun chief executive Scott McNealy, who demonstrated

components of the .comHome in his first keynote address at CES. "Everything

with a digital electrical heartbeat is going to be connected to the

Internet."

McNealy showed how a Web browser on a digital mobile phone with a Wireless

Access Protocol (WAP) micro-browser can interact in Sun's .com Home exhibit with

an intelligent door bell/door chime from CeTeLab (Sweden) and an electronic door

lock both powered by an Echelon LonPoint module and a Jini proxy based on

Echelon's LNS network operating system. The network allows someone with a mobile

phone to ring the front door bell, causing a message to be displayed on

resident's computer or Web-enabled cell phone. In response, the phone's keypad

can be used to command the door to open, allowing a parent to monitor his or her

children after school or to remotely authorize entry into a home by a repair

service.

"The .com Home' exhibit underscores how powerful connectivity to

everyday devices is. Connecting everyday devices and being able to communicate

with them from anywhere at anytime offers new conveniences to consumers and new,

exciting business opportunities to service providers," said Ken Oshman,

chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Echelon. Sun's .com Home

demonstration was created largely in conjunction with GTE and Cisco Systems as

part of an overall initiative to create a "Connected Family"

environment in which consumers link multiple computers and home appliances to a

single network, including kitchen appliances, interactive entertainment center

devices, home security, heating and cooling systems, and office systems such as

PCs, fax machines and printers.

Sun is also working with Bosch Siemens, Oracle, Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Sears,

Sears, Roebuck & Co., and Whirlpool to build products and services for the

.com Home. Cisco and Sun, for example helped Whirlpool develop an Internet-

ready refrigerator and oven, complete with a $350 10-inch color LCD display from

startup Qubit Technology. Cisco developed the Internet Home Gateway that uses

existing residential phone wiring to create the network on which the .com Home

operates. "This partnership between Sun and Cisco will make it easier for

consumers to dot-com their homes,'' said McNealy.

More than just a way to show off technology, Sun and Cisco are serious about

pushing the .com Home concept in the market. Sun is seeking to establish Java

and Jini as the defacto OS for consumer electronics applications. For its part,

Cisco, the leader in enterprise networking, has invested hundreds of millions of

dollars this past year to acquire companies with home networking related

technologies. Cisco will be competing with IBM's Home Director and Intel in the

market for home networking solutions. The market for these home networking

products is expected to reach $8 billion in 2002 from virtually nothing today.

Cisco officials said they expect to begin selling the Internet Home Gateway

to phone companies and Internet service providers for about $450 starting in the

second quarter. Cisco's product uses DSL connections and doubles as a modem

bringing high-speed Internet service into a home. Later versions will connect

with cable-television systems and wireless networks.

The Internet Home Gateway also supports as many as four lines to carry voice

traffic on the Internet. Ideally, phone companies will lease the device to

consumers along with a package of services that take advantage of the home

network. Telephone and Internet access provider GTE plans to begin testing it

with customers this summer.