Engineering center to give Java a boost

Electronic News, Sept 1, 1997 by Gale B. Morrison

New York--Perhaps not wishing to see their profits and products obliterated by all-encompassing Microsoft and Intel, the leaders of IBM Software, Netscape Communications and Sun Microsystems last week got even more serious with announcements on how they will usher Java computing to market faster.

Citing their dismay that the latest Java enhancements are taking many months to reach the software user--much less ever changing the hardware mix--the three companies agreed "around 4:30 (Monday) afternoon" here in New York to open a new Java Porting and Tuning Center.

The engineering center, housed at Sun's JavaSoft division in Cupertino, Calif., will initially be staffed by engineers from the three companies. The aim is to have Java engineering and deployment "in parallel, instead of serially," JavaSoft president Alan Baratz told press conference attendees last week at the Java Internet Business Expo.

Scott G. McNealy, chairman and CEO of Sun, said in a statement: "The Java platform's place in the computing mainstream demands that we take this step--for Java now, and in the future."

When asked if reporters were right to sense "urgency" in Tuesday morning's statements, Mr. McNealy responded with his characteristic tossing of catchy mantras, like "We've always said at Sun, 'have lunch or be lunch' " and "Yes, this is requiring a lot of change, and people aren't always willing to do that...we're going to get people off their butts and changing."

Netscape president/CEO Jim Barksdale, the former telecom executive, answered the question sitting on his hands and kicking his feet. Then, when the two executives were asked about what they think of all the rumors that Sun and Netscape are going to merge, Mr. Barksdale aped a kiss on Mr. McNealy's left cheek and Mr. McNealy demurred with, "I don't think Jim can afford me."

One of Mr. McNealy's closing remarks was this: "This is not about beating Microsoft, this is about solving customers' problems."

IBM senior VP, software, John Thompson was essentially reiterating Big Blue's tremendous engineering and financial support of Java that began last year. He said the new center in Cupertino is what IBM must do "as a major vendor of large scalable computers," alluding to what stands to happen to significant parts of IBM's $60 billion-plus yearly revenues if Microsoft and Intel have any more to say about the computer marketplace than they do now.

The first software activity will be to tune the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.1 class libraries and deliver it during fourth quarter of this year for all leading operating systems, browsers and tools. The companies have set a goal of delivering the next release of the JDK concurrently on all major platforms during the second quarter of next year.

Developer partners of Sun and Netscape will be able to receive "100 Percent Pure Java" pre-certification testing support for no charge via IBM's Solution Studios for Java also.

In a second announcement, Netscape and Sun unveiled plans for a 100 Percent Pure Java version of Netscape Navigator, which Mr. Barksdale said he has dubbed "Javagator," in early 1998. Sun revealed plans to include Netscape's HTML component with the JDK and to standardize on the 100 Percent Pure Java version of Navigator expected around the same time.

Yet, the software application ducks are getting in a row--with big names like Sabre airline reservations, Nomura Securities and Merrill Lynch signing on--and the hardware is nowhere.

The Sun Microelectronics subsidiary followed the software chieftains with its own press conference, to detail the new JavaEngine 1 (EN, Aug. 18) hardware/software bundling for OEMs to buy at $385 in 10,000-unit quantities and to detail that Diba, Inc.--a Sun company as of Monday--reference designs are available. Work on a Java architecture was detailed in Palo Alto last week.

Sun had no top-tier OEMs to announce, and the hardware offerings are not targeted to any market. The forum was more of the Java hardware possibilities. Mr. McNealy panned the Diba kitchen recipe appliance he showed during his keynote, with a self-deprecating "All right, maybe this one won't fly." Introducing the hardware announcements, Mr. McNealy humbly described his contemplation of getting into the consumer electronics business ("And try to go up against companies like Sony?"). He left the Sun Microelectronics press conference before it was over.

IBM is billing its Network Station 1000, due out in December, as the network computer for Java; what silicon it will contain has not been specified. The company has reportedly sold thousands of its current-generation Network Stations.

Mr. McNealy opened the Java Internet Business Expo in New York Tuesday, telling attendees the news he would be discussing later on in the day with the press. Both the engineering center and the "Javagator" announcements drew spontaneous applause.

He concluded by opening a closet that smoked from dry ice and had a red flashing light on it to show the latest in Java-enabled products, and this he opened with a Schlage-made ring that did a software handshake with the closet's lock. The mainline key company is apparently working with Dallas Semiconductor for the tiny IC in the ring that allows that to happen, in a similar way that the microcontrollers in smart cards can handshake with NCs for access.