SGI is expected to announce on Thursday that it is porting its Cosmo Worlds Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) authoring tool to Windows NT by the end of the year. Currently, the software runs only on SGI IRIX workstations. The announcement will come during SGI CEO Ed McKracken's keynote speech at the opening of World Movers conference in San Francisco. Company officials believe the NT deal will open their software to a much larger group of developers and speed the adoption of a "second Web" based around a 3D paradigm. SGI also struck a deal with Netscape Communications that will bring the SGI Cosmo VRML Player to Communicator, due mid-year. The player will be a native component of the software, not a plug-in, and will compete with Microsoft's VRML offerings