Answer the Q:! What is an Embedded System?
Here we go:
An embedded system is a chip(or series of chips)into which is
written a program ( or series of programs ), where the program
is not reprogrammable, and is unchangeable, ergo Y2K as an example.
Think of every conceiveable chip in every conceiveable device,
in everything from the simplest microwave oven to the most complex
of process control systems like Nuclear Power Plant systems, where
once the program has been written, it can never be changed nor can
it be updated.
These chips increasingly play a part in cars, boats,planes,computers,
computer peripherals, the list is endless.........
Sun Micro Systems have a method of programming functionality and
applications(e.g. Internet based systems and related computer
storage systems)called Java, and this "language" is increasingly
being adopted by the developers and program writers of these write
once-read once chips (embedded systems).
JAVA makes it easier to write the programs, but you still have
the problem that it is, simply put, a fixed program, no matter
how easy Java makes it to program.
So, you have a hundreds of corporations worldwide, who have their
own embedded systems technology, including SUN themselves, and who
compete with each other, but Insignia and JENE is above all these!
WHY AND WHAT DOES INSIGNIA'S "JENE" BRING TO THE PARTY????
Can you imagine a program that sits on top of a chip(embedded system) but is not programmed into it. This is a virtual program.
Now you're suckin' diesel!!
The virtual program can be written to at will, changed at will,
rewritten at will, deleted at will, replaced at will, downloaded
to the existing virtual program sitting on top of the chip (driving
the chip) at will etc.etc.
Insignia Solutions' JENE is unique and it allows SUN to bring Java
dominance to the embedded systems world, and no wonder SUN snuffed out attempts last week to open up the standard by which Java is driving the embedded systems market with the help of JENE.
JENE is not new in a sense to Insignia because it is the product
of 300 man years development, over ten years, and I said it before,
CITRIX owe much of their success to the technology bought from
Insignia earlier this year.
Virtual programming is not new, but it is as far as embedded systems
are concerned!!!!!
Quantum have bought into JENE because (as a storage manufacturer)
mass storage systems, and related applications, are managing
increasingly larger amounts of critical information. Manufacturers
such as Quantum, are finding that they can increase the dynamic
capabilities of mass storage systems, so they can balance the use
of networking bandwidth and local processing of storage device
services and remote access. Jene is a product where in one simple
application in one of a thousand industries, it brings enhanced
power to Internet connected devices. Essentially, with JENE, the
Internet and all its vast storage resources, can become the "virtual
hard drive" for embedded devices.
Jene and Java are key components in the drive for bigger,faster and
adaptable Internet Infrastructure worldwide.
And again I repeat, with patent protection, JENE is described above
for only one application arena out of thousands, so that the company
has significant licensing potential in the future to look forward
to, while it addresses specific markets directly at the product's
inception.
I hope I have helped, and you now know why I am in to stay!!!!
We are only at the first page of the first chapter, and I shudder
to think how many chapters there are.
The IrishEducator. |
