The Object Management Group has completed its vote to adopt the Real-time Corba 1.0 common object request broker specification, which enables developers to override high-level defaults so that full control over time-crucial priority and task scheduling functionality can be exerted. The OMG says the work doesn’t try to duplicate or replace the capabilities of existing real-time operating systems, but concentrates on details and performance issues of working in both homogeneous and heterogeneous distributed environments. It starts with a fundamental set of broadly applicable real-time Corba capabilities that are likely to be extended in the future.
Real-time middleware is expected to be used in industries such as telecom, aerospace, process control, and financial services, and the OMG says the Corba specification is the first middleware standard to meet this demand. Lucent Technologies Inc – one of the submitters to the specification, plans to develop a product using Real-time Corba, expected to move into beta testing in September this year. Others who contributed include Alcatel Alsthom Recherche, Hewlett-Packard Co, Highlander Communications Inc, Iona Technologies Ltd, Inprise Corp, Lockheed Martin Co, Nortel Networks Inc, Object-Oriented Concepts Inc, Objective Interface Systems Inc, Sun Microsystems Inc and Tri-Pacific Software Inc.
