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Java embeds itself in the control market

Interest grows In Java for embedded systems of all kinds

By Rick Cook, JavaWorld.com, 01/01/98

As in other markets, Java is still being hurt by its lack of maturity and well-developed software tools. Still, Java is being deployed, developed, or seriously considered in applications as diverse as cellular telephones, factory control systems, and the Hubble Space Telescope.

"Trends indicate Java will become big in the embedded market," says Carol Feigenbaum, director of product marketing at Microtec Inc., a division of Mentor Graphics based in San Jose, CA, that makes a real-time operating system and tools for embedded systems. "How Java is applied to embedded applications is another matter. There's a lot of debate and some confusion on that."

Part of the problem for Java in embedded systems is simply Java's immaturity. It takes time for a product like Java to grow from a specification to a full set of software development tools and into deployed applications. Part of the problem is the confusion engendered by the Java Wars between Sun and Microsoft. And part of it is a series of concerns that are particular to the embedded systems market, notably determinacy and size. In spite of it all, Java is attracting a lot of adherents in embedded systems, and there seems to be little doubt that Java will become a central part of the embedded market.

The nature of the embedded systems market

Embedded systems provide much of the intelligence in today's "smart" devices. Microwave ovens use them, telephones use them, even toaster ovens (increasingly) use them. And factories, transportation systems, and most of the rest of the infrastructure of modern life use them in massive numbers.

Embedded systems rely on microprocessors and microcontrollers -- a computer on a chip that combines a microprocessor with some ROM, RAM, I/O channels, and perhaps some other specialized devices. Although there still is a significant market for 4-bit microcontrollers, increasingly the business is moving to 8-, 16-, and 32-bit controllers. In higher-end jobs, such as controlling a laser printer or running the sensors and controllers on a machine tool, embedded systems often rely on full-blown RISC processors. Intel's i960 series has been a big hit in the embedded systems market, and Sun has versions of its SPARC processors that are widely used as well.

Estimating the size of the market for Java tools is difficult. While nearly everyone agrees that Java is growing explosively in the embedded systems market, numbers are hard to come by. That's not surprising, considering that estimates of the entire embedded software tools market vary enormously. International Data Corp. (IDC), a research firm based in Framingham, MA, estimates the tool market at just under 00 million in 1995 and expects it to grow to .6 billion by 2000. Wessels, Arnold & Henderson, a research company in Minneapolis, says the market was .5 billion in 1996 and will grow to .2 billion by 2001. Part of the difference in the estimates is in what the different analysts are counting as embedded systems software. Even more comes from uncertainty about a market that is fragmented and often hard to define. There is, however, general agreement that Java's portion of the embedded systems market today is miniscule and that it will become significant over the next several years.