Sun Microsystems to Collaborate With Industry Leaders to Develop Java Automation APIs For Manufacturing Companies; Major Vendors to Participate in Developing Open Specification.CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1996--Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced it intends to develop a Java(TM) application program interface (API) specification with which companies in the manufacturing industry can develop platform-independent, real-time process control applications that can run over corporate "intranets" within the factory as well as over the Internet. Endorsing the project are ABB n. 1. Among weavers, yarn for the warp. Hence, Noun 1. ABB - an urban hit squad and guerrilla group of the Communist Party in the Philippines; formed in the 1980s Systems Control, The Baan Company, Echelon, Elsag Bailey Inc., FASTech Integration Inc., The Foxboro Company, Hewlett-Packard Company (Lake Stevens Division), Honeywell Industrial Automation & Control, Intuitive Technology Corporation, SAP, Toshiba Corporation (company) Toshiba Corporation - A Japanese technology manufacturer with 364 subsidiaries worldwide. Toshiba makes and sells electronics for home, office, industry and health care including information and communication systems, electronic components, heavy electrical apparatus, (Industrial Systems Division) and Valmet Automation (SAGE Systems Division), who are leaders among process control and manufacturing system vendors. The firms will participate in specification development of the APIs. The announcement was made at ISA/96 in Chicago. Using the open, ubiquitous Java platform Running Java programs under the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Java "platform" refers to the running of Java programs versus Java itself, which is a programming language. Java programs are machine independent and run intact on any hardware platform that has a Java interpreter (JVM). and the new APIs, developers of process control applications will be able to unite manufacturing sites with all the other parts of a company's corporate intranet. Using Java will enable these new applications to work throughout a manufacturing enterprise, whether in a single building, across a complex of buildings, or around the world. Java's "Write Once, Run Anywhere(TM)" model will help to lower costs by simplifying development, upgrading, and deployment over the network. In addition, these Java enterprise applications will be able to access corporate and manufacturing data regardless of network location or the computer or operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. hosting Java. Another source of cost savings will be a new degree of flexibility made possible by using the open Java platform. Manufacturers will be able to run these applications on a vast range of systems: mainframes; servers; PCs; terminals; the emerging thin clients; or embedded controllers. Leading to the API initiative were initial discussions between Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. and The Foxboro Company several months ago on how Java could be extended to enable secure, real-time information connectivity for demanding industrial applications. Since that time, the effort has been expanded to include other manufacturing industry leaders as well. "Sun and its industry allies will define these new APIs with the goal of delivering unparalleled global control to the real-time domain of process and manufacturing automation," said Alan Baratz, president of JavaSoft. "Manufacturers will be able to take advantage of the network computing Storing and/or running applications in servers in a network. See cloud computing and network computer. power of Java to manage their plants worldwide via the Internet and intranets." Preliminary development of the Java Automation APIs is currently taking place within Sun. Consistent with the process put in place by Sun's JavaSoft division for previous API sets, Sun's industry associates can influence development, after which the specification will be published and made available for industry review and feedback before being finalized. Current expectations call for the new automation APIs to be ready in early Q2, calendar 1997. While the Java Automation APIs are eagerly anticipated by leading process control system vendors, many are already using Java. Some of these companies are now running Java intranet applications in their enterprise, have developed prototype applications based on Java, or have already introduced Java-based commercial applications. With annual revenues of more than $7 billion, Sun Microsystems, Inc., provides solutions that enable customers to build and maintain open network computing See ONC. Open Network Computing - (ONC) Sun's network protocols. environments. Widely recognized as a proponent of open standards Specifications for hardware and software that are developed by a standards organization or a consortium involved in supporting a standard. Available to the public for developing compliant products, open standards imply "open systems;" that an existing component in a system can be replaced , the company is involved in the design, manufacture and sale of products, technologies and services for commercial and technical computing. Sun's SPARC (Scalable Performance ARChitecture) A family of RISC CPUs from Sun that runs mostly under Sun's Solaris, but also under Linux and BSD operating systems. After development began in the mid-1980s by David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley and Bill (TM) workstations, multiprocessing servers, SPARC microprocessors, Solaris(TM) operating software and ISO-certified service organization each rank No. 1 in the UNIX UNIX Operating system for digital computers, developed by Ken Thompson of Bell Laboratories in 1969. It was initially designed for a single user (the name was a pun on the earlier operating system Multics). industry. Sun's Java programming platform, provides a comprehensive solution to the challenge of programming for complex networks, including the Internet. Sun Microsystems was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. -0- Note to Editors: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Solaris, Write Once, Run Anywhere and Java are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and in other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. Press announcements and other information about Sun Microsystems are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web using a tool such as Netscape or NCSA (1) (National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana-Champaign, IL, www.ncsa.uiuc.edu) A high-performance computing facility located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mosaic. Type http://www.sun.com at the URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. prompt. CONTACT: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Lou Harm, 212/614-4967 Greg Soucy, 508/266-1700 |
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