Zucotto applies Java to Bluetooth for broadband
Source URL:http://www.techweb.com/se/directlink.cgi?EET20000313S0052
March 13, 2000, Issue: 1104 EE Times
Section: Semiconductors
Zucotto applies Java to Bluetooth for broadband
Loring Wirbel
NEW ORLEANS - A team from Nortel Networks responsible for
developing a Java-based phone has formed a semiconductor startup
dedicated to creating a Java engine capable of linking broadband access
gateways to handheld devices through an embedded Bluetooth
connection. Zucotto Systems Inc., however, must overcome some
skepticism engendered when the first round of controllers based on Sun's
Java Virtual Machine architecture failed to catch fire in embedded
worlds.
Zucotto said its Xpresso engine, moving to midsummer tapeout, is
significantly different. It uses Sun's Kernel Virtual Machine, or KVM
architecture, along with a proprietary services layer the company calls
Slice, for Service Layer in Consumer Electronics. The goal, said vice
president of marketing Lisa McKnight, is to create thin, Java-enabled
clients that can operate without a real-time OS, yet handle broadband
feeds from cable or DSL modems, courtesy of a local Bluetooth link.
Because of the interest from personal digital assistant and digital cellular
phone manufacturers, Zucotto provided early demos of its networked
Java chips at the Wireless 2000 show here recently.
Ports to StrongARM, Crusoe
The Slice layer allows an abstraction of minimal drivers to link KVM to
Xpresso or alternative microprocessors, using a code footprint of less
than 80 kbytes, or less than 200, when linked to KVM and its class
libraries. Zucotto already plans ports of Slice to Intel Corp.'s StrongARM
and Transmeta's Crusoe processor.
Zucotto founders Ronald Dicke, Guillaume Comeau, Mike Majid and
Dariusz Otreba came from phone-system and semiconductor groups
within Nortel, as well as from the Calgary Java phone startup AudeSi
Inc. The company's primary R&D facility is in Ottawa, with
headquarters in La Jolla, Calif. Nokia Oy veteran Mark Wells joined
Zucotto as president and chief executive officer in early 1999.
The intent to place a KVM-based core at the center of its microprocessor
was always evident in Zucotto's business plan. Interest in Bluetooth
came later, as developers realized that broadband content such as
streaming video could be handled in a server-centric model through a Jini
broker. Because Bluetooth provides a serial in-building broadband
connection with local gateways, Zucotto decided to join the Bluetooth
Special Interest Group.
Zucotto was one of several companies opting for unusual thin-server
messaging models for portable devices, though it was the only company
with a semiconductor development strategy. HiddenMind Technology
Inc., for example, is reviving concepts of Remote Procedure Call
architectures used with asynchronous communications, and applying
them to a wireless application development environment.
HiddenMind had to develop new fully asynchronous versions of RPCs,
and create messaging models using the Extensible Markup Language.
Using XML to create "style sheets" for mobile devices, HiddenMind can
provision devices automatically, a concept Phone.com also is aiming for
in its Message Management Server release. Phone.com is moving to a
model in which servers can discover and provision handsets through
either Wireless Application Protocol or Short Message Service.
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