POWERSOFT PREVIEWS MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY FOR THE WEB

media.splash Enables Non-programmers to Create Interactive, Animated Web
Pages

CONCORD, MA, FEBRUARY 20, 1996 -- Powersoft today announced that it will
make available on the Internet alpha versions of its media.splash and
media.play technologies, which enable non-programmers to add animation and
interactivity to World Wide Web sites. Downloadable code, demos,
additional information and alpha program details are available on the
Powersoft Web site at http://www.powersoft.com.

The initial download consists of the application code for media.play and
several pre-built demos. media.splash is downloadable for members of the
alpha program. Powersoft is making this alpha level version of
media.splash and media.play available now so Web users can run the demos
and test the technology. Powersoft will evaluate user feedback to help
define what features and functions should be added to subsequent versions,
as well as to guide its development priorities for the technology.

Powersoft media.splash is a point-and-click multimedia tool for the Web
that is easy enough for creative professionals to use, but also powerful
enough for professional Web developers who don't want to get bogged down
writing code. Animations run quickly without requiring long waits for data
downloads because the player has a small memory footprint and a
network-based design. The easy-to-understand menus in media.splash enable
users to lay out pages, draw shapes, and incorporate text or GIF images
into a Web page. Once the page is laid out, users can define movement and
animate objects. When media.splash is used with Sybase web.sql, designers
can also fetch live data from a remote database to produce data-driven
animations and display personalized content.

media.play is the run-time environment that resides on the user's system to
run the animations, effects and applications created with media.splash. It
acts as a helper application for Netscape Navigator 1.1 and 1.2 client
software and works as a plug-in for Netscape Navigator 2.0.

"Interactive content and multimedia applications are an important part of
what makes the Internet so compelling," said Donna Simonides, director of
developer relations at Netscape Communications Corporation. "media.play
uses the Netscape Plug-In application programming interface to support
client-side animation and is another example of how Plug-In software
products extend the functionality of Netscape Navigator and make the
Internet come alive."

Both media.splash and media.play are part of the recently-announced Sybase
web.works, a comprehensive architecture encompassing the company's
database, middleware and tools products that enables the delivery of
sophisticated business applications on the Internet. With web.works,
Sybase will deliver a single, integrated and extensible application
architecture capable of supporting the development and deployment of
client/server and Internet applications.

"Companies want to both attract and retain customers through electronic
marketing over the Internet," said Mitchell Kertzman, executive vice
president of Sybase and CEO of Powersoft. "By using media.splash,
businesses and individuals can create highly engaging, interactive and
personalized Web pages that pull customers in and keep them interested."

SMART.PARTS

An integral component of the media.splash technology is smart.parts, a
collection of pre-defined functions that provide non-programmers advanced
features like flip book animations, pre-defined transitions such as wipes
or fades, and special effects like dancing letters and flashing graphics.
The smart.parts technology is extensible enough to create data
visualizers, such as graphs, and other functions, opening up the potential
for using it to build business applications into the web site. Powersoft
plans to support Java through smart.parts in a later version of the
technology.

"We are looking forward to media.splash supporting Java later in the year",
said Bill Shellooe, Manager, JavaSoft Developer Alliances at Sun
Microsystems, Inc.

The alpha version of media.splash runs with Microsoft Windows 95 and
Windows NT 3.51. media.play runs on machines using Windows 3.1 with Win32s
extensions, Windows 95, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows NT 3.51.

Sybase Inc. is a worldwide leader in client/server software. Sybase, and
its wholly owned subsidiary Powersoft Corporation, are focused on four
major market segments: on-line transaction processing, data warehousing,
mass deployment and electronic commerce. Sybase's software products --
database, middleware and tools -- provide its customers with desktop to
enterprise solutions. The company's mission is to provide its customers
with an open adaptable information systems architecture that enables them
to develop and deliver complete information systems solutions to
facilitate rapid business change. Headquartered in Emeryville, CA, Sybase
is the sixth largest independent software company in the world.
 
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