HP Java split widens By Charles Babcock, Inter@ctive Week Online November 9, 1998 10:44 AM PT Hewlett-Packard Co. said last week its split with Sun Microsystems Inc. over embedded Java was irreparable and it was launching its embedded Java clone, Chai, as a brand with other vendors, including Microsoft Corp. Also last week, HP helped to form a breakaway group of 13 vendors seeking to establish specifications for Java in real-time, embedded systems. HP General Manager of Embedded Software Jim Bell said the Real-time Java Working Group will establish its own standards process and select a standards body to supervise its effort. At the end of the week, the group was leaning toward the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering or The Open Group, representatives said. The moves were seen as the most serious blow yet to Sun's efforts to control all aspects of the Java development platform. "HP, in essence, is staging a call to arms for an open, vendor-neutral Java standard," said Ron Rappaport, an industry analyst at Zona Research Inc. HP's Bell said HP's breach with Sun concerned only embedded-system Java, in which HP has a huge business stake. HP's server-side business remained "an enthusiastic Java licensee," he said. The members of the Real-time Java Working Group include Access Co. Ltd., Aonix, AverStar Inc., Cyberonix, Enea OSE Systems AB, Lynx Real-Time Systems Inc., Microsoft, Omron Corp., Siemens AG, TeleMedia Devices Inc., SOMA MarketNet for NewMonics and Yokogawa Electric Corp. Members of the group did not see themselves as fostering a split with Sun. Writing extensions to Java that could be used for real-time, embedded systems has been "a hole that needed to be filled," and real-time software makers and operating systems vendors want to do the work, said Ron Kole, vice president at AverStar Inc., a real-time tools vendor. But Rappaport was not sure the dispute could be tidied up so neatly. "Once you let the animal loose, it's hard to restrict it for your intended purpose," he said. Unless HP puts strict conditions on its licenses, its licensees could use the Chai virtual machine on servers as well as in embedded devices, Rappaport said. HP is making a Chai Developer Kit, sample applets that it has dubbed Chailets and the ChaiServer available for free download from its Web site at www.chai.hp.com. The ChaiServer would control the running and distribution of Chai applications on a server for embedded devices. Despite HP's moves, Sun President of Consumer and Embedded Systems Mark Tolliver said the breach with HP may yet be healed. He said Sun was modifying its process for extending its Embedded Java to allow nonlicensees, such as HP, to participate. "It's now open to anyone who can send a technically qualified representative," Tolliver said. Sun has indicated over the past three months on its Web site that it would lift the licensees-only restriction. It plans to post an explanation of the new process by mid-November. But HP has persistently criticized Sun for keeping the Java standard-setting process under its control. By posting its Chai code to a royalty-free Web site and "taking actions that it believes a proponent of open standards must take, it was primed for the next move that may well extend beyond the embedded systems market," Rappaport said. From MAILER-DAEMON@cs.depaul.edu Wed Nov 11 09:05:00 1998