Sun Microsystems Inc says that it has now formalized the open process which it hopes will establish the future extensions to real-time Java, and has released the draft of a document to its Java licensees, detailing the current 32 application programming interfaces it has already developed to form the basis of the effort. The process is currently being carried out under non- disclosure. The extensions are needed so that real-time applications can be written entirely in Java. Currently, Java applets can be made to work as part of a real-time system by using EmbeddedJava, release 1.0 of which emerged last week. But developers have to resort to machine code for fully real-time applications. EmbeddedJava consists of an optimized Java Virtual Machine and tools such as the Java Filter, which selects the essential class libraries needed for a program, and Java Code Compactor, which burns the eventual program into ROM. Sun is facing increased pressure from rival vendors producing both clean room Java virtual machines and forging ahead with their own real-time extensions. Hewlett-Packard Co is leading an alternative working group looking at real-time extensions, while Insignia Software Inc has launched its own embedded virtual machine with extensions such as a concurrent garbage collector and an optimizing dynamic compiler that Sun doesn’t yet offer. Sun’s product line manager for EmbeddedJava, Vicki Shipkowitz, claimed that two issues were being lumped into one, and were actually separate. She says Sun’s main concern is that the Java business model is maintained, and that Java security isn’t compromised by alternative implementations. It has Java author James Gosling on hand to evaluate and carry out changes in the Java language that might be necessary to support the real-time extensions. Sun is not offering any time scales for when its real-time extensions might reach the market.
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