[410] in World Wide Web
Mosaic Comuunications Company press release...
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (yandros@MIT.EDU)
Fri Sep 16 21:45:25 1994
From: yandros@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 1994 21:45:05 -0400
To: www@MIT.EDU
From PRNewswire:
Mosaic Communications Unveils Network Navigator And Server Software
Company's First Products Bring Electronic Commerce to Global Networks
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Mosaic Communications
Corp. today introduced the Mosaic NetScape(TM) network navigator and Mosaic
NetSite(TM) server line, the first commercially robust software products for
easily exchanging information and conducting commerce on the Internet. The
new products bring secure communications, performance and support to
companies and individuals who want to create or access information services
on global networks.
The introduction of the Mosaic NetScape and Mosaic NetSite online
information exchange system comes just six months after James H. Clark,
founder of Silicon Graphics, and Marc Andreessen, creator of the original
NCSA Mosaic research prototype, founded Mosaic Communications Corp. The
company's technical staff includes virtually the entire team of engineers
who created Mosaic with Andreessen at the University of Illinois' National
Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) last year.
"Mosaic has been an Internet phenomenon since Marc and his NCSA team
released it as a research prototype in June 1993. In less than six months,
that same team has built from the ground up commercial-caliber products
based on the ideas behind this popular software, addressing the prototype's
inherent limitations," said Clark, chairman and chief executive officer of
Mosaic Communications. "By tapping into the talent and experience of this
original team we are able to bring advanced products to market sooner than
expected, enabling an immediate transition to commercial applications on the
net."
The Mosaic NetScape network navigator and Mosaic NetSite servers offer
easy-to-use interfaces for serving and accessing multimedia information on
the net, including formatted text, graphics, audio and video. They employ a
hypertext linking system that lets users simply click on a word or image to
retrieve information wherever it is located on the network. The products
are fully compatible with existing versions of NCSA Mosaic, making
customers' transitions to these commercial products simple.
"We built our products from the ground up with a focus on two areas:
integrating bulletproof security and delivering smooth performance over 14.4
kilobit/second modems," said Andreessen, Mosaic Communications' vice
president of technology. "Through this focus, we both enable electronic
commerce and make information services available to the broadest possible
audience."
Bringing Electronic Commerce To Consumers
Designing its network navigation tools with the needs of personal
computer users in mind, Mosaic Communications intends to make electronic
commerce easily available to consumers in their homes. "Electronic commerce
isn't about computer hackers on high bandwidth systems but rather ordinary
consumers with dial-in access from their home PCs to a multitude of content
and services," said Clark. "Enabling consumers to get easy access to
private services on the Internet, the world's largest public network -- and
enabling information and service suppliers to connect to this global,
electronic customer base -- is the ultimate goal of Mosaic Communications."
In order to ensure that it addresses the requirements of consumers as well
as content and information service providers, Mosaic Communications is
working with companies that have expertise in these various market segments.
"We are excited about the possibilities that Mosaic Communications' products
bring to PC users," said Avram Miller, vice president of corporate business
development at Intel. "It's precisely these kind of multimedia-rich
applications that will take advantage of Pentium processor-based personal
computers."
Mosaic NetScape Network Navigator
Available for all popular desktop environments, Mosaic NetScape is a
powerful commercial reimplementation of the ideas behind the NCSA Mosaic
prototype, using the same principles of point-and-click network
navigation. It is optimized to run smoothly over 14.4 kilobit/second modem
as well as higher bandwidth lines, offering performance that is at least 10
times that of the NCSA Mosaic prototype. Mosaic NetScape provides a common
feature set and graphical user interface across computers running the
Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, or X Window operating environments.
Mosaic NetScape also delivers security features such as encryption and
server authentication. It enables customers to take advantage of such
commercial services as online publications, financial services and
interactive shopping.
Mosaic Communications' network navigator achieves its dramatic performance
improvements through new capabilities such as:
o Continuous document streaming, enabling users to interact with
documents while they are still being downloaded rather than waiting for the
entire document to load;
o Multiple, simultaneous network accesses, allowing several documents or
images to be downloaded simultaneously; and
o Native support for the JPEG image format.
The first version of Mosaic NetScape will be available in October 1994.
Mosaic NetSite Server Line
The Mosaic NetSite server line -- aimed at corporations, publishers,
information providers, service providers and retailers -- allows users to
easily set up and maintain users for distributing information and conducting
commercial operations on networks. Fully compatible with HTTP-based clients
and servers, the new Mosaic NetSite line offers increased performance by
reducing response times and making efficient use of available processor
power and communications bandwidth. Available for UNIX based platforms, the
line includes two products designed to meet customer requirements: the
Mosaic NetSite Communications Server and the Mosaic NetSite Commerce Server.
The Mosaic NetSite Communications Server is aimed at organizations that want
to deliver non-secure multimedia content to various audiences, such as
online marketing materials to existing and potential customers, customer
support information, or other communications that do not require security.
The server can be scaled to handle heavy loads or be extended to incorporate
new features and functionality. It also provides intuitive,
self-documenting configuration and management scripts for easy set-up.
The Mosaic NetSite Commerce Server, in addition to offering the above
features, enables secure commerce to be cnducted over global networks.
Mosaic Communications' incorporation of RSA Data Security technology
provides encryption, which creates a secure channel to prevent anyone from
tapping into the network; and authentication, which uses a digital signatons
and electronic data exchange, enabling users to feel secure sending
sensitive documents over networks.
The Mosaic NetSite Communications Server will be available in October 1994,
with a list price of $5,000. It will be available for a promotional price
of $1,495 through the end of the year. The Mosaic NetSite Commerce Server
will be available in November 1994, with a base price of $25,000.
Additional functionality for the new servers will be availablein 1995.
Mosaic Communications Corp. is a premier provider of open software to enable
people and companies to exchange information and conduct commerce over the
Internet and other global networks. The company was founded in April 1994
by Dr. James H. Cark, founder of Silicon Graphics Inc., a Fortune 500
computer systems company; and Marc Andreessen, creator of the NCSA Mosaic
research prototype for the Internet. Privately held, Mosaic Communications
Corp. is based in Mountain View.
Additional informaion on Mosaic Communications Corp. is available on the
Internet at http://mosaic.mcom.com or by calling 800-NETSITE.
Mosaic Communication, the Mosaic Communications logo, Mosaic NetSite and
Mosaic NetScape are trademarks of Mosaic Communications Corp. ll other
product names are trademarks of their respective companies.
