Sun to Make Smart TV Control Boxes for Hitachi

Sun Microsystems Inc. said Tuesday that Japanese electronics giant Hitachi Ltd. will ship 30,000 television set-top boxes with Sun’s Java software to customers by the end of 1999.

The new set-top boxes will download services broadcast via satellite in Japan such as distance learning, news and medical information, then show it through a television set.

The agreement is another boost in Sun’s efforts to establish its Java programming language as the software foundation of advanced consumer devices, like TV set-top boxes and hand-held computers. It has been vying with Microsoft Corp. to be the key software supplier to cable companies and both firms have contracts with cable giant Tele-Communications Inc.

Sun said Hitachi plans to use the new set-top for Japanese satellite television systems. Sun’s Java operating system, called JavaOS, will be in 30,000 of the 200,000 set-top boxes Hitachi will ship to consumers by the end of 1999.

Separately, Sun’s Solaris Software group unveiled several new Internet software products, services and alliances as part of a continued emphasis on marketing to Internet service providers, where it already has a big presence.

Sun said that about 65% of the approximately 5,000 Internet service providers use its software.

Sun introduced a suite of software products developed for ISPs, including Sun Internet Mail Server software, Sun WebServer software, Sun Internet Calendar software, all running on Sun’s Solaris operating system, a version of UNIX.

Sun also unveiled a version of Solaris designed just for Internet access companies, called Solaris for ISPs, which it claims gives superior protection against hackers.