Marimba to Unveil Net Products

Marimba Inc., a start-up company founded by four members of the team that developed the Java software language, will unveil its first products today to help create a CD-ROM-like experience on the Internet’s World Wide Web.

The new set of tools and technologies, called Castanet, will let software developers create Internet applications that feature elaborate graphics, audio, and news feeds but do not require huge amounts of network capacity.

“What this will do is eliminate the wait part of the World Wide Web, which is becoming the World Wide Wait,” said Kim Polese, president of the privately-held company.

Palo Alto-based Marimba was founded six months ago and is among the first companies to receive funding from the JavaFund, a new venture fund led by well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Castanet has a “tuner” and a “transmitter.” The transmitter resides on a network server and sends updates as requested by the tuner. This time-release of software doesn’t clog up or slow down the network, because some required pieces of an application will always reside on a PC user’s hard disk.

“These applications and ‘channels’ can update themselves automatically, contacting the server at the provider’s site,” Polese said in a telephone interview.

A test version of Castanet is available immediately on Marimba’s Web site (https://www.marimba.com) and the final production version will be available at the end of the year.