Does anyone have information on the different real time java implementations.

Also what hardware platforms and OS do they run on?

I want to develop an industrial automation application based on Java. I will need to do digital I/O through data acquisition boards.

All help appreciated.

manuel

Hi Manuel:

Thank you for your interest in real-time Java.

At this time, Java SE RTS from Sun is the only real-time

Java platform available that is compliant with the real-

time specification for Java:

http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=1

http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=282

http://www.rtsj.org/

I can provide you with the following overview of our

current plans for Java SE RTS:

Our Java SE RTS product currently available is version

1.0. This version is based on Java SE 1.4.2 and runs

on Solaris10/SPARC.

Java SE RTS 2.0 is currently under development, which

is based on Java SE 5.0. Java SE RTS 2.0 will support

Solaris10/X86 in addition to Solaris10/SPARC platforms,

and includes a real-time garbage collector and support for

the J-RTS module for NetBeans (amongst other features):

http://www.netbeans.org/kb/articles/java-rts.html

Based on our current (and still tentative) roadmap, beta

is planned for Q4 CY06 and GA planned for mid-2007.

Subsequent to the Java SE RTS 2.0 release planned for

mid-2007 (based on our current roadmap), we intend to

port it to RT-Linux POSIX compliant platforms as well.

The application domain you are pursuing -- industrial

automation, where data acquisition is part of the

targeted system -- is quite interesting and in fact also

being viewed by many as promising and viable for use

of a real-time systems approach. Java SE RTS provides,

indeed, a complete real-time systems solution, plus of

course all the benefits of Java -- such as portability

(develop on one platform, deploy to many platforms),

security (by inherent design), rich set of APIs, high

performance, etc., and last but not least also widespread

developers support.

Hopefully, the above information will be helpful to you.

Should you have any further inquiries related to Java SE

RTS (or perhaps inquiries related to Java SE for Embedded),

please don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks again for your

interest in real-time Java technology.

Carlos Lucasius

Java SE Embedded and Real-Time Engineering

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/embedded/index.jsp

http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/realtime.jsp

Carlos,

I read your reply in the forum and that now prompts me to ask the following:

How can I become a beta tester for [b]Java[/b] SE RTS 2.0?

Though I can use Solaris for x86, the main problem for me is the Digital I/O. I currently use Advantech products and they have divers available for windows and Linux.

Though they don't have any specific drivers for Java, I wrote a JNI wrapper to access the digital i/o card.

I don't know all the details involved in the Linux implementation and what effort it would require to port it to Solaris, but I will look into.

I sent off an email requesting an evaluation version for Solaris of the Real Time Java but got no reply.

One of the desirable features that I am after is the asynchronous I/O.

I really do not want to poll the device to see if they have received something.

Is the release for the beta Java SE RTS 2.0 still Q4 CY06? We are half way through the quarter and there has been no news.

Thanks in advance,

Manuel Negri

By the way I can't seem to get the text to format correctly. I have a ton of paragraphs and it all appears as one.

[i]Java SE RTS provides, indeed, a complete real-time systems solution, plus of course all the benefits of Java -- such as portability (develop on one platform, deploy to many platforms), security (by inherent design), rich set of APIs, high performance, etc.[/i]

I'm sorry but I have to call you on some of these benefits you are claiming.

1) Portability -- RTS is not portable. Sun's own website says that it runs only on SPARC Solaris.

http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/realtime.jsp#requirements

And don't forget that RTSJ itself is WOCRAC, not WORA.

http://research.sun.com/sunlabsday/docs.2004/talks/1.05_Bollella.pdf

2) Security -- RTS is not secure. In order to use real-time threads, Sun RTS programs have to be run as root, leaving a gaping hole in system security.

3) Rich set of APIs -- How many classes in the Java API are compatible with the scoped memory model of the RTSJ? Virtually none.

Don't get me wrong; Sun RTS is surely the best RTSJ implementation out there. But some of your claims are pure marketing slime.