Probably the best article on HP's Java (from NYT) - things are not even close to being an ominous as that first (pretty weak) Reuters article had suggested:
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Hewlett-Packard's Java Clone Compliments Sun
By PETER WAYNER
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Hewlett-Packard paid Sun Microsystems a fine compliment by choosing to clone Sun's Java technology. The Palo Alto-based manufacturer of a broad line of printers, computers and laboratory equipment announced on Friday that it had successfully built its own version of Java for use in embedded systems. It also announced simultaneously that it had negotiated a license for Microsoft to use the technology with its Windows CE operating system.
Jim Bell, the manager responsible for the project at Hewlett-Packard, said in a telephone interview, "Java is so important that we feel that it has outgrown the ability of one company to control it." He suggested that multiple companies will be able to build a richer environment for Java by contributing according to their strengths.
Jon Kannegaard, vice president of software products at Sun's JavaSoft division, said, "It really signals that Java has arrived when a company as big as Hewlett-Packard decides it's big enough to clone."
He minimized the effect this would have on Sun's success with an analogy: "I'm willing to be Intel if they want to play AMD." Intel dominates the market for chips used in personal computers while AMD makes clone chips.
Bell said that HP's version of Java would be aimed at the embedded marketplace, a term that applies to computers that are hidden away from view from the users. Printers, for instance, often have fairly substantial computers inside them that may often be more powerful than the desktop machine giving the orders. Other embedded applications like cellular telephones or the credit card authorizing terminals built by HP's recently acquired Veri-Fone division may use less powerful chips.
Bell offered one hypothetical use for Java: If a printer found itself running low on toner it could either post a notice on the system administrator's computer or even order a new one from a warehouse.
Hewlett-Packard clearly sees the laboratory as another place that may benefit from Java technology. The company makes a wide variety of scientific lab equipment and much of it is controlled by embedded computers. If each speaks a common form of Java then it will be much easier for people to program the machines to interoperate.
Bell also pointed out that the growing reach of the Internet makes Java an ideal tool. "It will help us move those measurement devices to broader markets," he said. "Home medical devices could connect easily with devices at the doctor's office."
This marketplace is gathering a great deal of interest. One area of the Java One conference next week will include a Java Technology Town filled with "devices, gadgets and gizmos incorporating the latest Java technology." Kannegaard pointed out that the embedded market is ideal for Java because it offers the manufacturers the ability to write their embedded software once and change chips often. This may make the marketplace for embedded processors more competitive because manufacturers often stick with one company's embedded chips to avoid the reprogramming costs.
On a technical level, there is not much difference between what HP has done and many other companies have done in the past. HP has built its own version of the virtual machine, the piece of software responsible for translating the universally understood instructions known as Java byte codes into the local instructions understood by the chip inside the computer. Many manufacturers have done the same thing in order to ensure that Java is available on their chip.
Hewlett-Packard, however, has chosen to do this in a "clean room." This is a term based in the law governing intellectual property, copyright and the control of ideas. Sun can own implementations of the Java language but it can't prevent someone from trying to clone them. In this case, Hewlett-Packard took the specifications for the language written by Sun and gave them to a team of programmers. The company probably researched the r*sum*s and backgrounds of each of the engineers to insure that they had no access to proprietary Sun technology. This ensured that the HP version of Java was developed from publicly known information only.
At this time, William Woo, the manager for research and development of Java at HP, said that HP had developed the basic technology used in the lang, net, io and util packages, that is, the functionality that would allow a device to access the Internet and process basic Java commands. He said that work continues on the security manager and the abstract windowing toolkit, two collections of features that allow Java to defend against hostile viruses and provide a graphical user interface respectively.
Phil Missimor, a spokesman for Microsoft, said, "We already have a Java VM for CE, but the HP code is really optimized for a small footprint and we think that this is a really good complement." The phrase "small footprint" refers to the size of the application. HP's current package takes up about 500 kilobytes, making it easier to fit into a smaller amount of memory, which costs less for a manufacturer to include in a product. Missimor suggests that this size may be desireable for factory automation and small appliances like microwaves.
Still, compatibility could be an issue. Ted Schlein is a partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, the large Silicon Valley venture capital fund that invests heavily in companies using Java technology. He said, "If it passes Sun's compatibility test for Java, it's not a big deal. I'm still a big believer in one VM for each platform." He pointed out that one of the biggest complaints about Java today is the small differences between different implementations of the language.
Kannegaard pointed out that many companies become Java partners just to gain access to the compatibility testing software. He said it wasn't in Sun's interests to make it harder for HP to make its version compatible because widespread compatibility is Java's ultimate goal. But, he said, Sun won't make it easier because compatibility is part of what they sell as part of the license.
Given that HP produces such a large volume of printers and other lab equipment, Kannegaard suggested, "Maybe they made a 'make versus buy' decision and decided to sell to Microsoft to make a bunch of noise about it."
In the past, HP has chosen to travel its own road when industry-wide standards threatened to cost too much money. Adobe asked high fees for its PostScript language in the early years of laser printers and Hewlett-Packard chose to ship its machines with a less capable, but less expensive package known as PCL. It now commands a serious portion of the low-cost laser-printer business, but offers PostScript with higher priced machines. In the intervening years, other companies have cloned PostScript successfully, making the market much more competitive.
This could happen in the Java world as well. Kannegaard said, "It means that my engineers have someone nipping at their heels and they better be pretty darn good."
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