Fresco (web browser)

Fresco was a proprietary, embedded web browser produced by ANT Software Limited, a software development firm headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom.

As an embedded web browser, Fresco was quite attractive due to its low hardware requirements. One of the first mainstream devices that used Ant's Fresco web browser was the Prismiq Media Player released in 2003, and which featured 64 megabytes of RAM and a RISC CPU. The Prismiq media player received awards from print publications Financial Times and PC Magazine along with the web site CNet [1]

On the downside, the version of the Fresco browser as included in the Prismiq Media Player lacked support for AJAX and modern JavaScript. It supported HTML 4.01, JavaScript 1.3, optionally Macromedia Flash Player 5, SSL security, and anti-aliased fonts. [2]

IPTV tuners is another market niche where ANT's Fresco web browser has been a popular choice. By late 2006, Ant Plc announced that Pace Micro Technology shipped its one millionth TV set-top box including its Fresco web browser. [3]

Nowadays, the company has addressed most of the shortcomings of its Fresco web browser in the form of its succesor, dubbed ANT Galio, or simply, Galio. This browser supports all modern web standards like AJAX, HTML5, CSS 2.1, JavaScript 1.5 (EcmaScript 262 Edition 3), and Unicode.[4]