RETRACTION OF JAVA AND RTOS
SUN IS PUTTING JAVA TO SILICON.
Sun Microsystems is throwing down the Java gauntlet, predicting that
the Internet-aware programming language-and upcoming Java-specific microprocessors-will find a more-than-friendly reception in the embedded world.
"The place you're going to see Java completely take over is embedded control," Chet Silvestri,president of Sun Microelectronics, the semiconductor arm of the Mountain View, Calif. company,
told me. "Embedded developers 'get it'-they see what Java does for them."
According to Silvestri, the benefits include a very fast, low-power chip that directly executes Java"byte-code"-pseudo-code generated by Sun's Java compilers. Sun sees a huge market evolving as
companies incorporate the architecture into embedded applications in PDAs, cellular phones and
printers.
Indeed, embedded-software vendors are already priming the Java pump. Both Microware Systems Corp. (Des Moines, Iowa) and Integrated Systems Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) have ported their respective real-time OSes to Sun's language. Wind River Systems (Santa Clara, Calif.) is preparing to disclose that a customer has ported Java to its OS. And Microtec Research is reportedly considering a Java port.
I believe Java and the embedded-systems world are on a collision course. The foci will be the many embedded systems that will use the Internet as a way to communicate with remote controllers as well
as with other embedded systems. The need for this connectivity will drive demand for Sun's Java
CPUs.
Sun is actually designing a trio of Java processors: PicoJava, MicroJava and UltraJava.
PicoJava, which is expected to sell for less than $20, is the embedded-market offering. It features a compact core and a Java virtual machine that's built into BIOS. Low-power
implementations-perhaps down to 1.2 V-are expected.
Since Sun is fabless, it plans to license the PicoJava architecture to companies that can build it at very low cost and still make money on the chip's thin profit margins. Indeed, Silvestri suggested that
some Asian and European telecommunications vendors are interested, but he declined to name names.
Moving up a notch is MicroJava, which adds application-specific I/O, memory, communications and control functions to the basic PicoJava core. Selling for between $50 and $100, MicroJava is an integrated, single-chip solution that's ideal for a printer controller or a network computer. The latter is the $500 "Internet PC" that's the subject of furious industry activity.
Sun chairman Scott McNealy demonstrated his vision of such a machine at Uniforum '96 in February in San Francisco. The compact prototype was equipped with a Microsparc CPU programmed to simulate the MicroJava chip, which wasn't available at the time.
Despite its rocketing popularity, Java isn't a Johnny-come-lately programming language. Sun has worked on it for some five years. The original target was set-top boxes and PDAs. But the Internet
PC has emerged as the sexiest application.
For more demanding tasks, Sun is designing a high-end processor called UltraJava. It will execute Sun's visual instruction set tuned for multimedia operations, such as image compression and decompression, all in a package selling for about $100. The CPU will also handle 3-D graphics, obviating the need for a separate "media engine," in a high-end workstation.
Sun has completed the basic architectural engineering for PicoJava and MicroJava and is working on the logic design. The processors will become available by yearend. UltraJava is in the architectural
phase (they have to get the 3-D graphics stuff nailed down). Silicon should be ready by mid- to
late-1997.
Unlike PicoJava, which is being licensed, MicroJava and UltraJava will be designed by Sun and made by unidentified foundry partners.
Regards Peter |
