Marimba Inc has got LM Ericsson AB investigating ways it can use its Castanet push technology in its cellular phones and networking products. The Finnish telecommunications and networking giant has been testing various ways of using Castanet to update software in its products and is readying a laboratory in Menlo Park, California to further expand its investigations of Castanet and other Java technology. It’s early days yet, but now the agreement has been signed, Ash Ashbaugh, Ericsson’s director of its newly-titled Ericsson Internet Center said the work can be accelerated. He said Castanet could be used to update software in future cellular phones, but declined to comment on whether Ericsson yet has an operating system that includes a Java virtual machine, so it can run Java applications. He did say however, that Ericsson does not yet have a phone that can support Castanet. The Marimba technology could also be used for application control – a value-added service that adds new functions to its networking software. We’re going to go full- tilt on this one, said Ashbaugh.
