Standards change for real-time Java fails National standards body refuses to wrest control of real-time Java from Sun. By Antone Gonsalves, PC Week A national standards body has rejected a proposal that it oversee the standards process for real-time Java, staving off attempts to wrest the process from Sun Microsystems Inc., the creator of the Java language. The Washington-based National Committee for Information Technology Standards released voting results Friday at the request of several companies led by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP). The two are members of the RealTime Java Working Group, which broke away in November from the RealTime Java Requirements Group, formed last July by more than 50 companies to establish specifications for Java extensions in real-time embedded systems. The latter group, which includes Sun (Nasdaq:SUNW) and IBM (NYSE:IBM), is working under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The splinter group claims Sun has too much control over the standards process, which, it argues, should be independent of any vendor. The stakes in the battle to control real-time Java are high. The market for embedded systems, found in toys, cars, missiles, cellular phones, pagers and any other device with a computer chip, is expected eventually to grow to billions of dollars. Two specs would be harmful Having two specifications would complicate development and force developers either to build products following both standards or to choose between them. As reported earlier this week, the threat of two specifications prompted the U.S. Department of Defense, which uses embedded systems in military hardware, to hold a meeting Monday to which both sides were invited. The DOD is a member of the NCITS, as are HP, IBM, Sun and Sybase Inc. Among the companies voting against the proposal were IBM, Sun, Xerox Corp., Sybase and Lucent Technologies Inc. Those voting for it included Apple Computer Inc., AT&T, Compaq Computer Corp., HP and Unisys. From MAILER-DAEMON@cs.depaul.edu Fri Jan 15 11:43:04 1999