Java chip-maker Patriot Scientific Corp is junking the JavaOS system software it currently supports and will instead offer PersonalJava. Patriot says the PersonalJava 1.1 subset API is better suited for the market for embedded devices with small screens which it is targeting. It has already licensed Wind River Systems Inc’s VxWorks real-time operating system to host PersonalJava. What it needs now is an OEM deal, like a set-top builder. Patriot’s chip doesn’t implement Sun Microsystems Inc’s picoJava Java-on-silicon design but uses some additional ROM- based translation technology. Patriot says it’s already on its third generation of Java silicon while Sun’s microJava 701 hasn’t reached its first generation yet. Patriot now has the first samples of its 0.35 micron PSC1000 chip back running at 160MHz. A speed crank is already planned but the company says it doesn’t need to go to 0.25 micron process in the near future. It claims to have 80 development kits in the field and says more middleware, tools and other PSC1000 support software is in the pipe.
