ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 22, 1998--
Rapid Logic's New Development Kit Uses OpenControl Backplane(TM)
to Make It Easy To Deploy Java for Network Element Management
Rapid Logic, Inc., creators of the OpenControl family of network
device configuration, and management solutions, today began shipping
JavaControl(TM), a Software Development Kit (SDK) that enables network
device vendors to quickly and easily deploy Java-based configuration,
management, monitoring, and control capabilities into their products.
Using JavaControl, device vendors can expose the embedded functions of
their products to higher-level Java applets running in Java-enabled
Web browsers in a zero-programming, building block fashion that
requires no Java Virtual Machine (JVM) in the embedded device.
Like the WebControl SDK, Rapid Logic's Web-based control system,
the JavaControl SDK utilizes the OpenControl Backplane(TM) (OCB), the
company's "write once, present anyhow" device management framework to
overcome many of the common problems associated with developing
embedded Java applications. In addition to freeing network device
vendors from having to embed a JVM into their device, the OCB provides
a unified data access model that allows vendors to seamlessly hookup a
device's legacy C-based functions and SNMP MIB variables to Java
applets, HTML pages, e-mail alerts and command-line interfaces.
Moreover, the OCB provides a bi-directional communication layer that
reconciles the potentially crippling performance hit to network
devices caused by using TCP as an interface for network management
applications. What's more, via the OCB's object abstraction model,
JavaControl enables vendors to create different iterations of
high-level Java applets without needing to re-engineer or even
re-compile the underlying embedded C code. As such, it's tailor-made
for device management customization or GUI outsourcing strategies.
A New Strategy for Embedded Java Development
JavaControl uses a brokering scheme to manage applets and applet
communications, eliminating the need for an embedded JVM. An Applet
Broker handles all communication between the Web browser and the
embedded device, managing applets downloaded to the Web browser. The
broker is stored on the embedded device and loaded, along with any
presentation and data processing applets, into the Web browser,
delivering real-time graphs, reporting, indicators, and charts that
provide higher-level control of and reveal granular information about
the network device. JavaControl's Applet Broker manages all
communications, automatically multiplexing and de-multiplexing
requests, as necessary, and presenting only the information required
via UDP, a lightweight protocol, to optimize communications and
minimize overhead.
The Applet Broker interfaces with Rapid Logic's OpenControl
Backplane, so it works seamlessly with all data types and protocols.
The OCB provides a unified data access model, abstracting Java
presentation code from the underlying embedded C code so the integrity
of a client's proprietary code is maintained. By developing
Java-driven user interfaces that are integrated into the OCB,
developers can easily modify the look, feel, and/or function of their
Java-based management interface without ever having to change
underlying code.
A component assembly framework that enables engineers to
discover, hookup, and bind the proprietary functions of their products
to HTML pages, Java applets, SNMP MIB variables, e-mail alerts, and
command-line interfaces, the OCB solves the greatest life cycle
challenges vendors face: allowing presentation methodology to easily
access data within their devices. The OCB provides fast
time-to-market, reuse of code across multiple product lines, and a
user interface that can be created in any language, fine-tuned for any
end-user segment, and modified at any time with no engineering
required.
A Drag-and-Drop Integration Tool
JavaControl comes bundled with the JavaControl Integration Tool,
a visual Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool that gives
developers a drag-and-drop development environment, shortening
development time from months to minutes. The JavaControl Integration
Tool provides a zero-programming component assembly framework that
reduces the process of Java-enabling a device into three steps:
"Discover" (the embedded elements in the device), "Hookup" (embedded
elements to the Java layer) and "Build" (a customized Java applet that
is tightly integrated with the functions of the embedded device).
Because the process occurs in a completely visual, non-programmatic
fashion, no knowledge of Java programming and only minimal knowledge
of the underlying embedded functions of the device is needed to use
JavaControl. Developers customize the look, feel, and function of
their products using standard Java Beans as development building
blocks, dragging them into a design palette. JavaControl comes with a
library of preconfigured Java Beans to display charts, switches,
gauges, and other elements, although programmers can generate new Java
Beans using conventional Java development techniques.
"In talking with our customers, they expressed three primary
goals with respect to deploying Java-based functionality into their
products. First, they wanted a systematic way to expose their legacy
code base to Java-based graphs, monitors, and the like. Second, they
didn't want their engineers to have to become Java experts to
accomplish the task. Third, they wanted all of this without having to
embed a JVM in the device," said Mark Sigal, CEO for Rapid Logic.
"With JavaControl, we're giving companies a development platform that
fits their immediate needs like a glove while providing a unified,
extensible device management strategy that can be systematically
migrated from product to product across the development life cycle.
We're delivering cheap insurance for making sure that their element
and network management strategy is not leading to a dead end."
JavaControl integrates easily with all major Real-Time Operating
Systems, offering single-click integration. It is the perfect
extension tool for customers who have already developed embedded HTML
applications using WebControl(TM), Rapid Logic's embedded Web SDK that
also interfaces with the OpenControl Backplane. Using a simple
point-and-click tool, all of the development work done for WebControl
can be integrated into JavaControl in just a few seconds. Like
WebControl, JavaControl also provides "drop-in" support for all major
SNMP stacks, allowing vendors to avoid spending hundreds, if not
thousands, of hours interfacing with previously defined elements.
Price and Availability
The JavaControl Software Development Kit is immediately available
through both royalty and royalty-free pricing options, depending on a
client's cash position, the scope of the license, and the nature of
the product. Base licensing packages start at $45,000 per target
product licensed. JavaControl can be purchased directly from Rapid
Logic.
Leading manufacturers are already embracing Rapid Logic's
OpenControl Backplane architecture which, among other benefits,
affords embedded network device vendors extensibility to other
management methodologies including Web, Java, SNMP and command-line
interfaces. The growing list of Rapid Logic licensees includes Cisco
(NASDAQ:CSCO), PairGain (NASDAQ:PAIR), Xylan Corporation (NASDAQ:XYLN), Asante
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASNT), Performance
Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:PTIX), Digital Microwave Corporation
(NASDAQ:DMIC), Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., XLNT, and
Packeteer, Inc.
About Rapid Logic, Inc.
Founded in 1996 by the pioneers of Web-based management for
network devices, Rapid Logic, Inc., is a privately held software
company that develops device configuration, management, and control
solutions that deliver significant time-to-market and product
development life cycle advantages to network device vendors. Investors
include Sterling Payot Company, a private, San Francisco-based
investment banking firm; Tom Shanahan, Chief Financial Officer of
Agile Software Corporation in San Jose, Calif.; and Morton H.
Meyerson, Chairman of Perot Systems Corporation based in Dallas.
For more information about Rapid Logic and its Open Control
family of configuration and management solutions, call (510) 749-0900
or visit the company's Web site at rapidlogic.com. For
information about the company's new demo CD, call (510) 749-0900, send
a fax to (510) 749-9009, or send e-mail to sales@rapidlogic.com. Rapid
Logic's corporate headquarters is located at 1040 Marina Village
Parkway, Alameda, CA 94501.
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