webMathematica Now Shipping: Unique Product Brings Computation to the Web

webMathematica provides the long sought-after ability to quickly and easily add interactive calculations to the web, enabling users to:

• Build custom web sites that provide specialized calculations

• Compute, visualize, and analyze data using a web browser

• Deliver sophisticated courseware and publish interactive books

• Provide active functionality for technical documentation that can be instantly updated from a centralized location

• Integrate computation into existing enterprise infrastructure

"webMathematica changes the paradigm for delivering technical computations," says Lars Hohmuth, Product Manager for webMathematica at Wolfram Research. "Using webMathematica, companies can rapidly create customized applications and deploy them over the web, using just standard web tools and a working knowledge of Mathematica."

webMathematica has generated unprecedented interest during its beta test with banks, engineering firms, and other institutions starting to phase it into their enterprisewide systems. Testers from 23 countries participated in the test phase.

"webMathematica satisfies our long-standing ambition to bring truly interactive calculations to the web," says Conrad Wolfram, Director of Strategic and International Business Development. "Judging by the dramatic way in which testers are adopting the technology, I'd say it fulfills their needs too."

According to Cheng Wu of eFunda, "We are extremely impressed with webMathematica's performance, especially its rock-solid stability. In the race of bringing world-class mathematics software to the web, Wolfram Research is way ahead of its competition."

A number of universities have begun creating webMathematica applications, showing that the release of webMathematica will also have a large impact on the academic and educational communities. "Mathematica is the tool of choice at hundreds of schools and universities worldwide. Now they can create web-based interactive distance education courses and supplemental class materials that take advantage of Mathematica's functionality, providing a richer learning experience," adds Hohmuth.

webMathematica is built on Java servlets, making it compatible with any web server, servlet engine, or application server that supports the Servlet 2.0 or later API and giving developers a broad choice of platforms and web solutions to work from.

"Our adoption of modern web standards as the basis for webMathematica makes its integration into existing web infrastructures virtually seamless, not to mention future-proof," states Tom Wickham-Jones, Director of Kernel Development at Wolfram Research and chief developer of webMathematica. "If you want to put interactive computations and visualizations on your web site, there's no question that webMathematica is the easiest way to do it."

More information about webMathematica, including working webMathematica applications, is available.

webMathematica is initially available for Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000, Intel-based Linux platforms, and Solaris, and other platforms will follow soon. It comes in two license configurations: webMathematica Professional, intended for development and deployment of sophisticated intranet and internet sites, and webMathematica Amateur, designed for those who wish to showcase their work over the web. Subscribers to Wolfram Research's Premier Service will receive complimentary copies of webMathematica Amateur.