October 8, 1996
Network computers, printers, personal digital assistants, faxes and other networked devices that connect to the Internet and run specialized operating systems can now benefit from Java's cross-platform features.
Wind River Systems Inc., which builds OS software for these specialized devices, said it will be the first company to license JavaSoft's JavaOS. JavaSoft is a division of Sun Microsystems.
Wind River, Alameda, Calif., makes embedded development software, which essentially provides an OS for non-PC devices.
In the same manner that an application developer would write to Microsoft's Windows OS, a fax or printer vendor can write printer or fax code for their product to Wind River's Vxworks OS and to its Tornado development software.
By incorporating Java into the OS, these types of networked devices will be awarded full network status in the eyes of the network administrator trying to manage a corporate intranet, said Steven Li, vice president of multimedia and telecommunications at Wind River. "From a browser or a workstation, a printer or fax or any of those devices can be managed on the network just like any PC," Li said.
Using the JavaOS, these networked devices can become Java-ready and have the ability to download information on the fly or dynamically load information.
Wind River will distribute the software when JavaOS becomes available at the end of this year.