Motorola, IBM, and other leading names in the computer hardware industry are developing dedicated semiconductors for the Java language. But while those high-profile "Java chip" projects provide steam for Java's promised ubiquity while simultaneously riding on the language's popularity, those same companies are leaving their options open.
"We don't think that the market wants Java and only Java," said Mike Kantrowitz, executive vice president of Neoware Systems Inc., a developer of network computers in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. "We don't think customers are going to throw out their Windows applications and mainframe applications."
Corporate customers are loathe to scrap the billions of dollars of legacy hardware they have purchased over the years for a newcomer like Java. So they are going slow in adopting the technology, and the new Java hardware developments mirrors that cautionary approach.
Neoware is not interested in the "Java processors" being developed by Korean chipmakers like Samsung and LG Semicon Ltd. Rather, it is working with Motorola to "tweak" a new version of the Power PC chip to hard-code the Java Virtual Machine.
Neoware's technology will allow its NeoStation NC customers, such as the American Association of Retired Persons, to perform multi-faceted operations such as running Java apps and C and C++ apps, said Kantrowitz.
"Java is one language, and a very important one that we are committed to," said Kantrowitz. "But Java is just one element of what people want in a computer. Our computers run the Navigator browser. That is a C language program. We also allow people to connect to any Windows application on our network computers."
One of Java's biggest champions is IBM - which sees the language as a strategy to unify its "big iron" mainframes and legacy systems. Big Blue plans to incorporate specially designed Java chips into its PCs in 1998 - while also setting aside space on the silicon for other languages, said Phil Hester, vice president of development at IBM's network computer division in Austin, Texas.
Meanwhile, Oakland, California-based software developer Cloudscape claims to be working with several major hardware makers to install a Java Virtual Machine relational data management system into new notebook PCs.
The company has delivered the Java Virtual Machine to as-yet identified beta customers within the United States who don't "want their hardware to obsolesce" if Java takes off as an operating system, said Malcolm Colton, vice president of marketing at Cloudscape.
Cloudscape's data management engine will work with distributed applications such as sales force tools, smart catalogs, e-commerce, e-mail, and personal information managers. And while it will run these on "skeletal" computing platforms such as NCs, it will also run with standard X-86 chips.
And Java steward Sun Microsystems is itself developing a CPU - including a hardware-based Java Virtual Machine - with Samsung, LG Semicon, and Mitsubishi. The project is named picoJava.
"We intend to make picoJava the de facto processor standard for the new breed of communications and network-centric devices," said a Sun spokesman.
