HP and Siemens Automation & Drives Group Pen Licensing Agreement for HP's ChaiVM

Business Wire, Nov 2, 1998

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 2, 1998--Hewlett-Packard Company today announced that Siemens Automation & Drives Group, Erlangen, Germany, intends to license HP's embedded-virtual-machine technology, ChaiVM.

Siemens A&D will embed ChaiVM into its industry-leading Sicomp systems for industrial-automation applications. As part of the licensing agreement, both companies are cooperating on the development of real-time capabilities for embedded systems.

Siemens is the first industrial-appliance manufacturer to license HP's ChaiVM, which is designed specifically for embedded systems. ChaiVM is a clean-room implementation of the publicly available Java(TM) virtual-machine specifications.

"We want to offer the productivity gains of the Java programming language to our customers," said Peter Brich, general manager responsible for the Sicomp business of Siemens A&D. "HP's ChaiVM allows for that because it is easily portable and customizable, and enables us to integrate Java language support into our industrial-automation products while addressing the customer's embedded-application needs and hard-real-time requirements."

"As a leader in industrial automation, the Automation & Drives Group of Siemens has what it takes to advance the real-time capabilities in ChaiVM," said Jim Bell, general manager of HP's Embedded Software Operation. "We are very pleased to be working closely with Siemens A&D to accelerate the progress in industrial-automation applications."

HP's independently developed embedded-virtual-machine technology, ChaiVM, complies with the full Java virtual-machine specifications and is optimized for use in consumer devices, electronic appliances and other embedded systems. Designed for environments with memory and cost constraints, HP's ChaiVM gives developers the flexibility to create a system with just the functionality needed for their products.

Further information on HP's Chai family of products and programs can be found at http://www.chai.hp.com.

About Siemens A&D

The Siemens Automation & Drives (A&D) Group is a leading global provider of products, systems and solutions for industrial automation, ranging from low-voltage switchgear; variable-speed drives across PLC and CNC systems to automation solutions for manufacturing and process industry. Siemens A&D is the largest supplier worldwide of PLC systems and had revenues of around 13 billion DM in its fiscal year 1996/97 with approximately 52,000 employees worldwide.

Information about Siemens A&D and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.ad.siemens.de. Further information on Siemens's Sicomp family of products can be found at http://www.ad.siemens.de/sicomp.> About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 127,200 employees and had revenue of $42.9 billion in its 1997 fiscal year.

Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

Note to Editors: Java is a U.S. trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.