Monday April 26, 8:10 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Wind River Systems, Inc.
Tadpole Chooses Wind River's
Tornado for Java-Enabled Handheld
Appliance
New Device Based on VxWorks Real-Time Operating System With Personal
JWorks
ALAMEDA, Calif., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Wind River Systems (Nasdaq: WIND - news), the
leading provider of integrated development software tools, real time operating systems, and
engineering services for embedded applications, and Tadpole Technology Plc announced today that
Tadpole chose Wind River software for its new internet appliance. The Tadpole-Cartesia
J-Slate(TM), a diskless, rugged hand-held computer was built using the Tornado(TM) development
environment, VxWorks® real-time operating system and Personal JWorks(TM), Wind River's
implementation of Sun Microsystems' PersonalJava specification. This device is a unique,
Java-based mobile information system that allows utility workers to retrieve and update on-line
information while in the field.
''Delivering such a complex, Internet-enabled appliance for the utility industry within a limited
development window was a key challenge,'' said Bernard Hulme, group CEO of Tadpole
Technology. ''When we began development of the J-Slate hand-held device, we were very pleased
to find that Wind River already had a Sun Microsystems-certified PersonalJava solution ported to
our OS of choice, VxWorks. By using the highly productive Tornado development environment in
conjunction with Personal JWorks, we not only saved development time, but we were also assured
our product would be based on a stable and efficient PersonalJava virtual machine tightly bound to
the most reliable RTOS on the market.''
''Tornado and Personal JWorks meet all of the requirements for the development of next-generation
information appliances -- extensibility; upgradability; Internet-connectivity; and security,'' commented
Curt Schacker, vice president of marketing for Wind River Systems. ''With Tornado and Personal
JWorks, Wind River is delivering Java technologies to the embedded market that are available now.
Tadpole's selection of our software products is an excellent example of how Wind River can help
customers build the connected device of the future -- today.''
Availability
Please contact Tadpole Plc. 01223-278200 or www.tadpole.com directly for availability. For more
information, see www.tadpole.com/cartesia/cartesia.html.
Tadpole-Cartesia J-Slate
The Tadpole-Cartesia J-Slate's diskless, rugged, hand-held pen computer has been specifically
designed for field workers. More cost-effective and reliable than conventional or Windows®-based
laptops, J-Slate provides field workers with timely, accurate, and job-specific data and detailed
maps to better understand and respond to planned and emergency tasks. Information including
detailed Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping data is downloaded to the handheld
J-Slate hardware via conventional or digital cellular phones and displayed on designed-for-the-field
hand-held computers. Job information can also be uploaded to corporate headquarters. J-Slate has
configuration options that include user accessible PCMCIA sockets, integrated cellular phone, radio
and GPS, as well as modem and Ethernet connections.
Tornado Development Environment, VxWorks & Personal JWorks Available for UNIX, Windows
95, and Windows NT host platforms, more than twenty target processor architecture families and
hundreds of variants and derivatives, Tornado is the only complete software cross-development
environment for embedded systems. Tornado is seamlessly integrated and includes the industry's
most powerful development tools and VxWorks, a feature-rich, high performance and scalable
real-time operating system. Completely open and customizable, Tornado also facilitates the use of
third-party and customer-developed tools to enhance its capabilities and meet unique customer
requirements. Tornado has more than 270 software and hardware partners and is used by thousands
of developers worldwide.
Personal JWorks is a complete Java solution for embedded applications, addressing the fundamental
embedded requirements of small memory footprint and high performance. Personal JWorks
provides an unmatched, economic way for integrating the PersonalJava environment in
memory-constrained network-connectable consumer applications such as set-top boxes,
smart-phones, car navigation systems, game consoles, and hand-held devices. |
