Sun Microsystems Inc has licensed its PersonalJava and EmbeddedJava subsets of Java to a clutch of real-time operating systems (RTOS) companies, including its recent acquisition, Chorus Systemes SA. Sun has also frozen the final spec of PersonalJava, which is designed for small devices with a user interface, such as telephones. EmbeddedJava is for small devices with no interface, such as microcontrollers. Sun will post what it calls a style guide next week on its website to help developers write PersonalJava applications. Each of the eight licensees now have the right to embed PersonalJava and EmbeddedJava binary code into their RTOS. The new licensees – apart from Chorus, which Sun bought earlier this month and Lucent Technologies Inc, which co-write the PersonalJava spec – are Acorn Computers Plc, GeoWorks Inc, MicroTec, Microware Systems Inc, QNX and WindRiver Systems In. Sun claims they have more than half of the RTOS market between them. What all of them are waiting for of course is Sun’s entry into the RTOS market. Chorus told us last week it expects Sun to integrate JavaOS with its Chorus/Jazz real-time technology and come up with a range of RTOS solutions to address a variety of markets. JavaOS is not yet productized, and is now part of SunSoft’s new embedded systems group where Chorus also resides. Personal, Embedded and Smart Card Java are JavaSoft technologies.
