Consumer crowd cozies up to Java
eetimes.com
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
(01/15/99, 4:56 p.m. EDT)
PALO ALTO, Calif. — Consumer-electronics companies are nudging closer
to Java in their quest for a standard applications programming interface for
next-generation digital consumer systems.
In a move to be announced Tuesday (Jan. 19), Sun Microsystems Inc. and
Sony Corp. will collaborate to ensure the interoperation of Sun's Java-based
Jini distributed-computing architecture with the Home Audio-Video
interoperability (HAVi) home-networking scheme developed by eight major
consumer-electronics vendors. The move follows the recent revelation of
Sun's and eight development partners' plans for Java TV, an applications
programming interface for digital TVs using Java.
Together, the announcements reveal Java's increasingly visible role in
establishing the software underpinnings of next-generation digital consumer
devices.
Sun announced this past week that the Java TV API project is close to
completion and that the first draft will be ready for public review by the end
of March. Listed as key partners on the development project are Sony,
Philips, Matsushita, Toshiba, Motorola, OpenTV, LG Electronics and
Hongkong Telecom.
Defined as "an extension to a generic Java platform, such as PersonalJava,"
the API addresses such functions as TV-tuner control, conditional access,
e-commerce, audio/video streaming and on-screen graphics. The final
version will be posted on Sun's Web site three to six months after the release
of the draft in March.
"The API will be free for anyone to download and implement," said Eric Chu,
manager of strategic markets at Sun.
Those working on the Java TV API made it clear that their goal is a single,
common programming interface for digital TV applications. But the group
has yet to secure endorsements from such key digital-TV industry groups as
the U.S. Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) and Europe's
Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) Project.
Aninda DasGupta, chairman of ATSC's DTV Application Software
Environment (DASE) group, acknowledged Sun's plan to submit the Java TV
API to DASE and DVB.
Java TV architect David Rivas said Sun is making progress in negotiating
with the industry groups over such issues as who will control future Java TV
revisions or extensions. "We've been exploring a collection of possibilities,
including allowing ATSC and DVB to be 'experts' in defining future
innovations," Rivas said.
DVB and ATSC also have expressed concern over licensing issues.
"There exists a certain lack of clarity in Sun's intentions regarding the amount
of control they want in the conformance-testing regime and in the evolution
of current Java technologies like PersonalJava and Java TV," DasGupta said.
But he added that ATSC is working to resolve the issues with Sun's senior
management and legal counsel and that the committee has been "getting
encouraging results from such discussions."
Broader support from CE vendors on the Java TV API could have serious
implications for Microsoft Corp., which has been lobbying heavily against the
inclusion of Java APIs in digital-consumer-system standards. The software
giant is pushing Windows CE into digital consumer platforms and is
recommending that service providers and system manufacturers use
JavaScript only when necessary.
Similarly, Java TV could alter the course of the Intel Corp./Microsoft-led
Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF). The forum's main
thrust today is to garner momentum by leveraging off-the-shelf Web tools
and such technologies as HTML 4.0 for interactive digital TV. The private
group sees no need to support Java at this point.
Different targets
Sun's Chu described the ATVEF proposal as a "Java Script- and
HTML-based Web-centric solution for DTV-content developers" and added
that Java TV's targeted services and applications "are very different from
those of ATVEF." He argued that "cable operators, satellite-service
providers and digital terrestrial broadcasters don't want their viewers to leave
their programs and go off to other Web sites" and that it has not been proven
that consumers will want to explore Web sites linked to TV broadcasts.
"If any interactive programming is to be downloaded, our belief is that its
quality had better be amazing — up to broadcasting quality," he said.
ATVEF director C.J. Fredricksen stressed that the two initiatives would not
compete but would complement each other. "We haven't actually seen a
copy of the Java TV API yet, but we think that any API should help provide
content developers new vehicles and capabilities," Fredricksen said.
It's important to note, she added, that "nobody creates Web content in Java."
But a new API would allow content developers to leverage Java's
capabilities.
Another ATVEF proponent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said
no programming language — including Java — will act as a defining feature
for digital TVs. "ATVEF can use Java, or Fortran for that matter, to
implement the ATVEF presentation engine," he said.
Java TV's proponents, however, are "looking far down the road, aiming at
what will become available beyond the next-generation TVs," said Rodger
Lea, vice president of the Distributed Systems Laboratory at Sony U.S.
Research Laboratories (San Jose, Calif.). "They are talking about an API for
creating really sophisticated, sexy interactive applications. They include TV
pictures in 3-D spaces and streaming content for digital-TV programming."
The Java TV API uses a full-blown Java programming language that is like
C++ but is far easier to use. Because Java does not permit direct
manipulation of system memory, it can be considered a "safe" language,
constrained from performing such undesirable operations as "crashing one's
set-top," Chu said.
Beyond the TV, consumer-electronics vendors are rallying around Java for
creating home-networking applications. Independently of Sun, the companies
promoting the HAVi home-network architecture are using a Java class
library as a "Java.HAVi API," said Sony's Lea. Just as digital-TV
applications could be created using the Java TV API, HAVi-based
home-network applications that are made available in Java byte code would
be able to run without modification on a variety of advanced digital consumer
systems based on different processors and real-time operating systems.
DASE chairman DasGupta noted that the HAVi APIs have been proposed
to DASE for use in allowing broadcast applications to perform in-home
networking functions. "The HAVi APIs are written in Java, and the same
Java Virtual Machine could be used to execute the code in all Java APIs in
the receiver," he said.
HAVi — which is backed by Sony, Philips, Matsushita, Hitachi, Sharp,
Toshiba, Grundig and Thomson Multimedia — is one of several bids to create
a new layer of middleware capable of automatically discovering devices on
the network, coordinating the functions of the various devices, and installing
applications and user-interface software on each appliance. The other
initiatives include Sun's Jini, Microsoft's IP-based Universal Plug and Play
initiative and the computer industry's HomeAPI effort.
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