Now equal owner of the JavaOS for Business operating system with Sun Microsystems Inc, IBM Corp is keen to blow away some of the dark science which shrouded the system software during Sun’s sole stewardship of the technology. IBM has two system software environments designed for use on new generations of low-cost PC or Java-based thin client devices which it expects to hang off mainframes or servers. It’s going to become an important business for IBM, as customers replace limited function dumb terminals or vertical industry monitors with devices offering new levels of functionality. IBM says the essential difference between NCs and PCs is how software is managed by the server. NCs, by and large, have all of their functionality set by the administrator. IBM recommends replacing green screen and character-based and single- function application-specific monitors with devices running JavaOS for Business that will be available on Intel-based NCs from next year. It also sees JavaOS for Business being used in new kiosk, ticketing and other vertical application systems. For more demanding client environments where complex graphics or some degree of local control and intelligence is required, IBM offers the PC-based OS/2-based WorkSpace On Demand client.
Gemini
Sun’s original JavaOS, all-Java operating system designed to run on its JavaStations was re-worked as JavaOS for NCs (the Luna code base) to embrace the NCRP network computer reference profile for diskless NC devices. Microsoft fashioned a PC-based alternative styled on the NetPC specification. IBM says that was too closely associated with Windows and was long ago replaced by Intel Corp’s operating systems-agnostic Lean Client specification which it supports. Although perhaps Sun’s closest Java partner, it came as little surprise to learn that IBM has decided that Luna was not robust enough for its requirement. Luna suffered well-publicized performance problems and delays and JavaOS development was eventually taken away from what was then JavaSoft, where it was reportedly under-resourced, and turned over to SunSoft last year (CI No 3,142). Instead IBM worked with Sun to enhance Luna, signed a joint development agreement effectively obseleting JavaOS for NCs, and directed its efforts into creating new services for a release it would call JavaOS for Business. JavaOS for Business is one of three development streams based upon the Gemini code base that succeeded Luna. The others are Sun’s embedded- and consumer-oriented JavaOS releases. Sun and IBM co-developed the Java System Database (JSD) and Java Service Loader (JSL) for Gemini, supposedly enabling developers and users to mix and match services, controls and device drivers with different vendors’ JavaOS implementations. Luna did not accommodate this functionality. IBM shipped JSD to developers in JavaOS for Business 2.0; Sun shipped JSL in JavaOS for Business 2.0.1, and IBM incorporated JSL into a subsequent release of its software. Sun has rights to integrate the co-developed JSD and JSL back into its consumer and embedded JavaOS code. There are still some device drivers included with JavaOS for Business, such as COM and serial, that were originally written for JavaOS for NCs. They’ve been preserved in JavaOS for Business because they work fine. JSL could potentially be used to load other functions and services in JavaOS, including administrator operations and user preferences IBM says, though it has no specific plans to do so at this point.
Green threading
There is also another JavaOS kernel in development at Sun which, though likely to feature in Sun’s other JavaOS implementations, may or may not end up in JavaOS for Business. That’s the Chorus real-time environment which Sun acquired with the French system software company of the same name earlier this year (CI No 3,243). Chorus’ Classix Unix-compatible microkernel connects Java and Chorus’ real-time threading system in such a way that Java applets can utilize Chorus’ real-time and embedded system services. Moreover Chorus’ real-
time software already runs on many different microprocessor architectures. It would provide JavaOS for Business with many more pre-built controls and services than the current kernel and threading model, called Green, especially for systems in which green (character) or blue (X11, cursor and graphics) screens and network terminals are being upgraded to devices requiring browsers and Java. It would also provide greater flexibility for creating application- specific devices. IBM says it has not yet been decided whether the Chorus kernel will be used in JavaOS for Business. It certainly wouldn’t be integrated for at least a year. If the Green threading model is swapped out for the Chorus kernel the Gemini name will be retained. For those that have heard about a JavaOS kernel code-named Libra, forget it, says IBM. The name was bandied around before Gemini was conceived and is long dead. Other technologies IBM says it has co-developed with Sun for the operating system include Java Platform API and Java Boot Interfaces. JBI finally provides support for DHCP and the ability to use NCs running JavaOS for Business with multi-vendor servers. The high-level JPI separates the core of JavaOS for Business from the Java virtual machine.
Still no word on hardware
What’s not yet clear – and we’ve found no-one prepared to set the record the straight – is where IBM’s Intel-based NCs to run JavaOS for Business will originate. Big Blue’s current PowerPC- based NetStation NCs that use a blend of system software from various sources, are built for it by Network Computing Devices Inc. NCD already builds Intel-based clients for other OEMs. However IBM has previously said it will offer PowerPC devices for use at the low-end, green screen replacement end of the market, while Intel systems will be sold higher-up the chain. However IBM has not yet made public any plan to port JavaOS for Business to PowerPC.
