With the jettisoning of its TradeWave Corp internet security business SunRiver Corp’s future is now hostage to the fortune of the brave new world of NC network computers. Right now the Austin, Texas-based company’s Boundless range of NCs – mostly repackaged versions of diskless its X Windows terminals – run Windows applications locally using Citrix Systems Inc’s ICA remote access protocol technology. The company has pushed back its plans for a Java machine until next year for a number of reasons. For one, it hasn’t yet licensed JavaOS from Sun Microsystems Inc’s JavaSoft unit; it has only signed a letter of intent saying it will do. But it does plan to go ahead and license it, according to VP marketing Mike Stebel. However, he said JavaOS’ lack of support for peripherals right now is a real issue for the Boundless devices because the company intends to market its NCs to the retail sector among others where support for printers and barcode readers is crucial. Stebel also reckoned the current releases of JavaOS and the Java Development Kit (JDK) – 1.0 and 1.1 respectively – are not playing together and will be out of step until the next cuts, without mentioning specifics apart from peripheral support once more. He also had little time for Citrix Systems’ planned Java version of its ICA protocol. It’s tediously slow and not suitable for running a business, he said. Boundless’ current NCs run on the Intel Corp i960 RISC mainly. The plan for next year’s Java NC is to run on the StrongARM RISC chip from Digital Equipment Corp, but the company is also evaluating Intel iAPX-86 platforms.
