Good Day All,

A few years back the Programming community was in a tizzy about how Java was going to become "the language". (Solve all the world's problems,... poverty etc)
The hub-bub seemed to have died down, or maybe I stopped listening.....
With all the handheld devices, cheap memory and the blazing speed of processors it seems as though Java would be a natural. It seems everything will soon be a webserver.
So what is the state of Java?
I'm interested in the various tools that are required and availible as well as the logical chips/chipsets (primarily for Ethernet interfacing) but this I can search on the web.

From this list I'm curious whether you embedded guys are working with a cup of Java on your desk. (And whether I should wake up and smell, not C, the coffee)

thanks for your views,
brendan Kirby

 

> A few years back the Programming community was in a tizzy about how Java
> was going to become "the language". (Solve all the world's
> problems,...poverty etc)
> The hub-bub seemed to have died down, or maybe I stopped listening.....

I agree, that the big hipe is over, and now it's time to see how and where Java can be used. In my opinion Java has some advantages over C (but I don't want to start a Java vs. C vs. C++ flame ware). Most of the compiled byte code is simple enough to execute it direct on a Java processor. I'm currently working on one that fits in a medium sized FPGA. You can find some info: "http://www.jopdesign.com/":http://www.jopdesign.com/
It does not support full Java (not now , but I've used it in a project with distributed speed control of up to 15 asynchron motors.

> I'm interested in the various tools that are required and availible as
> well as the logical chips/chipsets (primarily for Ethernet interfacing)

The second project where this processor is used is a RTU with all this internet stuff: Ethernet interface, PPP, Webserver and so on:
"http://telealarm.net/en/info.html":http://telealarm.net/en/info.html
For Ethernet interfacing the most popular chip is CS8900 from Cirrus. It can be used with an 8 bit ISA interface (very easy) and needs only a trafo for 10base-T ethernet. You can find a driver in Java for this chip on the processor web site.

I hope that Java will be used more and more in the automation field, so I'm not going in the wrong driection. But a lot of problems still have to be solved. One of the biggest is Real-Time in Java. A language with a garbage collector is not the ideal starting point for this. A specifiaction for Real-Time Java can be found at "http://www.rtj.org/":http://www.rtj.org/ . It's a big specification and it will take time till it is implemented on small systems.

Martin Schoeberl ([email protected])

 

Brendan,

Our experience is that Java usage is increasing everywhere, and that includes Factory Automation and embedded systems. I think you hit some of the high spots.

Just about every PDA and handheld out there, as well as the next generation of mobile phones have support for Java. Contrast this with Microsoft solutions which have no real presence on phones and support only the PocketPC based PDAs.

On the embedded side, you see an increased use of Java because of an increasing use of non-Microsoft systems. Linux is making huge inroads in the embedded space, and of course has great Java support. Many of the "traditional" realtime systems, VxWorks, etc. also provide Java. Embedded systems are now available designed exclusively to run Java (realtime and non-realtime).

The support for Enterprise Java (J2EE) is also growing, including support for small and embedded systems. Even the freely downloadable implementations have support for a range of databases, clustering and hot-failover. In a cost-sensitive market, this solution, on Windows or Linux, provides a compelling alternative to the costly "Historian" pacakges provided in the marketplace.

If you want to go into more detail, feel free to e-mail me at "[email protected]", mailto:[email protected]