Sun Announces
Availability
of Next Version
of the
PersonalJava
Platform
New Version Provides Graphical Toolkit for Building
Consumer-Oriented User Interfaces PALO ALTO, Ca. - Febuary 1,1999 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the
release of version 3.0 of the PersonalJava application environment. Version 3.0
includes features that simplify the construction of consumer-oriented graphical
user interfaces. These features are delivered in the Truffle graphical toolkit.
Truffle contains a window system and a set of widgets, all written in the Java
programming language for ease of portability. This new graphical toolkit allows
the device manufacturer to establish a distinct product identity by customizing
the look-and-feel of the user interface. Sun provides a reference look-and-feel
called the "Touchable look-and-feel" for touch screen-based devices.
Compared to previous solutions on the market, Truffle allows device manufacturers
to build graphical user interfaces that require significantly less memory. The release
of the PersonalJava 3.0 application environment follows on the heels of the EmbeddedJava
1.0 application environment that was released last month.
Version 3.0 of the PersonalJava application environment and version 1.0 of the
EmbeddedJava application environment will be the first versions of these technologies
available under certain principles of Sun's recently announced community source
licensing model. Under this model, any licensee will be able to access the source
code for development purposes at no charge. It is expected that a community source
license model will spur significant new efforts in the consumer and embedded device
arena. The source code for both PersonalJava and EmbeddedJava technology is expected
to be available to the public in February 1999.
"Version 3.0 of the PersonalJava application environment represents a significant
advance in providing device manufacturers with a platform to build successful consumer
devices," said Mark Tolliver, President of Consumer & Embedded at Sun Microsystems.
"Truffle not only provides the key benefits of portability and customizability,
but it does this in a more compact memory footprint. We're very excited to make
PersonalJava technology available through a community source license model. We anticipate
that even more developers will be able to benefit from PersonalJava technology,
thereby adding to the wealth of PersonalJava technology-enabled devices and applications
on the market."
"PersonalJava 3.0 is another major step in addressing the requirements of
embedded developers designing consumer oriented devices," stated Curt Schacker,
vice president of marketing for Wind River Systems. "Truffle, which provides
the ability to customize the look and feel of a PersonalJava DEVICE, is an important
technology for our customers. To address this need, Wind River has ported PersonalJava
and Truffle to our VxWorks embedded real-time operating system. With PersonalJava
3.0, Truffle, and VxWorks, a complete ready-to-deploy solution with a small memory
footprint is now available."
Industry Momentum
A large number of companies have licensed the PersonalJava platform to develop
consumer devices. Products using PersonalJava technology have been demonstrated
in the past year in devices ranging from web phones to set-top boxes to home audio
equipment.
The PersonalJava specification has benefited from strong industry support over
the course of the API review process and the result is a comprehensive specification
that defines the use of Java technology for consumer devices. The completed version
of the PersonalJava specification is posted on the Sun website at:
http://java.sun.com/products/personaljava.
PersonalJava Technology
The PersonalJava Application Program Interface (API) provides developers with
a unified way for programmers and manufacturers to create applications that run
on a myriad of consumer devices. The PersonalJava API was created specifically
for network-connectable consumer devices that people use for communications, entertainment
and mobile computing. Manufacturers of consumer devices can use the PersonalJava
platform to create network-connectable products that can access the vast array of
applications and services on the Web.
EmbeddedJava Technology
The EmbeddedJava application environment is for embedded devices with dedicated
functionality and severely limited memory. These devices do not require general
purpose web browsing. Developers use the EmbeddedJava application environment to
create a variety of products including low-end mobile phones, pagers, process controllers,
instrumentation, office printers and peripherals, and networking routers and switches.
About Sun
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer"
has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ "SUNW") to its position as
a leading provider of hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide
intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $10 billion in
annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide
Web at http://www.sun.com.
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Java, EmbeddedJava,
PersonalJava, Truffle, and The Network Is The Computer are all trademarks or registered
trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries.
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