MontaVista Software will provide the requisite software technology in terms of the operating system for Panasonic's new Broadnow Internet-enabled television set-top box.

The Broadnow box can receive ordinary TV signals as well as Internet data. And the system can be programmed to record specific video or music to a hard disk and watch or listen to it later, like the technology offered by TiVo's personal video recorders.

The Broadnow device, available in Japan, is the first of several products Panasonic plans to introduce to receive video and audio over high-speed Internet connections.

MontaVista -- a Sunnyvale, California-based start-up that sells Linux and programming tools for consumer-electronics devices -- will demonstrate the device next week at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco.

Panasonic is one of several consumer-electronics companies that invested in MontaVista, along with Sony, Toshiba America and Yamaha. The start-up debuted a version of Linux for consumer-electronics devices in January. Several software companies are working to adapt Linus to "embedded" computing systems such as consumer-electronics devices, network routers or in-store kiosks. One of its better-known successes is the TiVo device.

Panasonic in January announced an Internet videophone, also powered by MontaVista's Linux.