How is the Web Spun into WebTV?

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WebTV is spinning something nifty into your television set, but unlike those nasty spider webs hanging from the ceiling, you won�t need a dust rag to catch the Web in WebTV. In fact, WebTV is quick, but not dirty. It�s the cleanest and simplest way to get connected to the Web thus far. Even the company�s Web site gives crisp answers to tangled questions.

WebTV Networks was founded in the spring of 1995 by three techies�Steve Perlman, Bruce Leak, and Phil Goldman�who previously worked for Apple Computing. But WebTV went quickly undercover. Like Superman posing as Clark Kent, the three super geeks chose the code name Artemis Research, and they conducted business out of a BMW garage in Palo Alto, California. At the speed of light, Artemis created the technology that makes cruising the Web on your television a piece of cake, and the company unveiled the WebTV in July 1996.

Keeping in line with the Superman image, WebTV Networks has a dual personality. The WebTV Reference Design is a set of standards that makes WebTV workable. The technology, constructed by Steve Perlman and Co., is licensed to the electronics companies Sony (Sony WebTV Internet Terminal) and Philips (Philips Magnavox Internet TV Terminal). The set-top boxes, which are about the size of cable television boxes, come out of the package ready to roll out the Web carpet for users.

In a nutshell, the box converts Web pages into standard television signals, so you can sit back, relax, and ride the Web waves like you would any other television channel. The WebTV box includes a 33.6 kilobyte-per-second (Kbps) V.34 modem and a 16-bit stereo audio for CD-like sound. Unlike a PC-compatible computer, which often uses an Intel processor, WebTV comes equipped with a 112 Megahertz 64-bit RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) chip designed by MIPS, a Silicon Graphics Inc. subsidiary.

The second component of WebTV Networks is the WebTV Network. Like any other online service, the Network is the limousine that escorts you to the Web in style. You pay $19.95 per month, and you can Web site-see until your gas runs out.