To all: FYI.
--QS
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Sun Microsystems Inc., a developer of workstations, network servers and software, said the U.S. Army is testing its Jini technology to create mobile command centers for battlefield operations.
Jini, which was unveiled in February, 1998, is technology that Sun has developed to connect disparate devices to a computer network as easily as plugging in a telephone.
Sun said that several army bases in the U.S. are testing Jini to quickly create tactical operation centers which control, execute, and monitor battlefield maneuvers.
The army has a diverse collection of devices and computers, ranging from laptop computers, global positioning systems, printers, servers running both the UNIX and Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows NT operating system and older logistics and radar software systems.
"Particularly in the army environment, they can't waste any time," said Jon Bostrom, chief architect for Java and Jini solutions at Sun. "These command posts are totally mobile. The idea is to come together very quickly. If you are trying to hook something up and someone shoots at you, you are not going to be very happy."
Sun said that the army expects to deploy systems using Jini sometime in the second half of 2000. The Sun executives said they could not divulge the value of the contract. A U.S. Army official was not available for comment.
Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service
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