Vendors split ranks with Sun over standards process for embedded Java

November 2, 1998 — A group of 14 vendors — including Hewlett-Packard, Rockwell International, Siemens, and Microsoft — split ranks today with Sun Microsystems over how the company is marshalling standards for the emerging realtime embedded Java technology, saying Sun unfairly excludes non-licensees from the standards process.

The group just announced that it has formed an “open, vendor-neutral standards process” aligned with the National Institute of Standards and Technologies, in Gaithersburg, MD, for creating Java-based realtime extensions. The move came as the Embedded Systems Conference was convening in San Jose, CA.

By splitting from the overall Java evolution process overseen by Sun, the vendors hope to accelerate use of Java in realtime embedded systems by allowing any company — regardless of its relationship with Sun — to contribute to such realtime extensions.

The rift could have widespread consequences as Sun tries to make its write-once, run-anywhere mantra hold true for a range of non-PC devices — from pinky rings to automobiles.

“Sun’s model only works if these factions don’t get steam,” said Tim Sloane, senior analyst at the Aberdeen Group in Boston. “This has been coming to a head for some time because Sun refuses to accept that Java has different markets that need to be treated differently.”

“The biggest risk,” said Sloane, “is that Sun in reaction to this — rather than being more responsive — becomes more closed.”

The so-called Real Time (RT) Java Working Group is comprised of Access Co., Aonix, Cyberonix, Enea OSE Systems AB, HP, Intermetrics, Lynx realtime Systems, Microsoft, NewMonics, OMRON, Rockwell Collins, Siemens AG, TeleMedia Devices, and Yokogawa Electric.

The vendors claim that their implementations of Java virtual machines (JVMs) for their embedded devices, such as robotic arms, are excluded from Sun’s standards process because they do not hold Java licenses. Sun does not allow them to check for Java compliance based on the Sun testing suite, the vendors said.

Consequently, within six months the group will create its own set of conformance specifications for integrating Java with an embedded system or device, the vendors said.

To block such a defection, Sun reportedly has offered an embedded Java participation agreement, but the 14 vendors — which did not include Java powerhouse IBM — chose not to adopt it, saying their intellectual property was at risk.

The move by the RT Java Working Group wrests control of Java from Sun, in some sense, Sloane said.

“Sun has two choices: either they pretend this doesn’t matter, or they turn around and determine what specific market segments out there are in the process of wresting Java in these directions and segment their efforts to address those groups with different implementations [of Java],” Sloane said.