A builder.com article discusses the increasing use of Java as a tool for developing embedded systems. Primarily because of the portability benefits that java brings, it has become a very popular option in the past year or so. The article covers the upsides and downsides of Java in embedded systems.
Interesting article,
J2ME and the MIDP spec are extreamly popular on the new smart phones that are now available in Japan and Korea. USA is years behind in infrastructure for the 3G sets that have a JVM built right into the phone. This allows midlets, MIDP applets, to be sent accross the phone to do amazing things. I worked for a company that was developing this technology in my last job, and worked on IDE tools for this using J2SE. Check out http://www.plazmic.com to see what is being done in Canada. Also, RIM http://www.rim.com is also going 100% Java on their BlackBerry devices.
In the next decade Java is going to really be the language for this type of application development. I encourage any developers going in this direction to go to Sun and get busy with the free tools they have.
Eugenia, I would just like to let my comments be known on your new ad from Sun.
I find it irritating. the noise that is makes is abnoxious.
Just thought I would let you know.
Java was designed with Embeded systems in mind.
the only reason that it did not take off in that direction from the start is that the embeded market was moving in the direction Java was intended for, mainly appliances.
now the industry has cought up.
Huh? I’m confused by your comment here. I see no new ad for Sun. I, for one, found the article interesting. While it’s true that Sun had originally intended Java for embedded systems, it’s new to hear that it is actually finally happening. The BlackBerry was the first embedded use of Java that I had seen, and I was quite impressed that it worked as well as it it did.
Maybe if you see a story you’re not interested in or don’t believe is “news” you could just skip over it and wait until you find something that you believe is worthy of your attention. I personally find Java stories to be certainly worth reading. Java is a good idea, it’s interesting to watch it develop. While Java is not an OS, it certainly is a major consideration in operating system choices these days.
Oh yeah, and Eugenia didn’t post the story and hasn’t commented.
Cheers,
Ben
it was on the main page. there is a new add for a Sun Linux u2 server. it has some anoying music that does not stop.
that is why I posted as being off topic.
Speed is king in embedded applications. Writing such an application in Java lowers the upper limit. Doing so is prompted by two likely factors: inexperience that creates a belief that Java is the only language worth learning and using; or management that makes decisions largely influenced by buzzwords (and no technical basis).
well, not really but it still is used. Good spot for latest info on what Chuck Moore is doing at: http://www.ultratechnology.com .
Anyway, the article basically indicated that Java is NOT ready for prime time. It has had more than enough time to get its act together and nada. I don’t see Java going anywhere in embedded apps. Portability never has been a issue that really affected the bottom line and having that as the “main plus” is pretty weak. It doesn’t make the product any better to the end-user who has no clue as to the innards but can tell fast from slow, expensive from cheap.
The notion of having to pay extra for a hardware Java byte-code interpreter (to get speed) is nonsense – what a waste of space. Better off using C or Forth and having either a cheaper product or a product with more features for the same price. All Java products are vulnerable to a competitor who will do it either (or both) faster and/or cheaper.
It’s pretty sad when companies aren’t trying to squeeze great things out of hardware and are actually more than willing to try the easy way out with way too many abstractions away from the hardware. Portable embedded apps?? Give me a break. SQUEEZE baby SQUEEZE the hardware. Remember what Captain Kirk would do with that extra 2%? He would RUN with it.
GO FORTH AND CONQUER
Hmm, guess you all just don’t ‘get it’
Of course Java is slower then C, and most likely will be for the near future, but chips being built by companies like http://www.zucotto.com and others will make Java on devices rock. Besides, the argument that embeded apps on a Cell phone are all about speed is rediculous. You simply have no idea what the actual requirements of a user are in this case. Palm Pilot, the most successfull PDA in history, got it right not because it was faster then WinCE devices, but because they understood what users wanted. Speed is a technical thing that geeks like, not what users need. If a user needs speed on a cell phone then the phone is probably not the platform that needs to be used.
Saying that portability never effects the bottom line is crazy. What are you talking about? If a company can develop an application that can work on any Java Phone vs one that only works on Nokia API because it’s writen in C, then they are going to get the contract over your C version. Development time is reduced because you also don’t have to have developers learn each phone API as well. And so time to market is reducced because the QA cycle is smaller because your only testing Java, and not every phone out there as you would have to using C. As well, there are over a million developers using Java and that makes Java a sinch to move over to the future of wireless development without all the ‘low level’ details of a specific manfr API.
Developing applications that work on cell phones is not about the phone, or about speed, it’s about knowledge management and the ability to send and recieve knowledge in a specific time and location that make the delivery advantagous in a business setting. Read my lips “TECHNOLOGY IS NOT A SOLUTION” its only a means to one. The world is going wireless because there is a force in business to get knowledge to people where they are. The world order is changing from having people at desks, and to have all information on their desktops, to one where all information is on servers, i.e. the NET. Sun’s vision of ‘the network is the computer’ is coming. Java phones is just another way for knowledge to be sent to people, and for people to interact with it and send it back. Under these business requirements, speed is not a deciding factor for a company to develop or use one technology over another. Things like security far out weigh speed, as well as issues like portability, robustness, ease of use, connectivity, and support are far more important than speed. If you think Java is just another programming language like C then you don’t ‘get it’, it’s a platform.
Speed is not the only factor when it comes to embedded applications at all. Size is important, and Java scores a lot of points here, when run interpreted you can do a lot more in less space with Java than in C and assembler since each bytecode does a lot more, with a hotspot optimizing JVM speed the right parts of the code could be compiled to machine code too to get the best of both worlds. Also speed of Java in embedded applications might actually be a lot better than one could expect since embedded devices have no backwards compatibility to worry about usually so they can add a Java support chip without much trouble to get quite an efficiency boost. Probably most important in embedded applications however is probably stability, which makes them insanely expensive to write in low level bug-prone languages, Java might be worth a bit of added hardware complexity to lessen software complexity.
it was on the main page. there is a new add for a Sun Linux u2 server. it has some anoying music that does not stop.
Yeah, I ran into that, too. I was listening to some nice classical music when suddenly this new age stuff starts blaring out the speakers. And I thought those blinking ads were bad! 😛
Speed is king in embedded applications. Writing such an application in Java lowers the upper limit.
I have written embedded Java apps for appliances which have the JVM in a chip and do not utilize a software VM. On these appliances, Java ROCKS. Java apps have a smaller footprint that C apps that have the same functionality.
Also, I have lived in Japan, and their Java phones are far better than phones in the US and Canada (never been to Europe so I can’t judge their phones).
Why do so many people knock things that they’ve never tried?