The Open Group and its members have identified a category of critical applications that have similar reliability and availability requirements as safety critical Java, but which require a higher level of functionality than traditional systems.

Historically, these types of systems have been developed as ad hoc, purpose-built applications using proprietary development methods by specialized contractors, incorporating commercial components and industry best-practice development methods whenever possible. In order to reduce cost, developers are increasingly introducing commercial components into these applications. However, many of the available commercial components target non-critical applications such as web services, and they don’t match more stringent requirements. In adopting and adapting these commercial products to critical applications, the developers of these new systems have exposed the need for additional capabilities, particularly in the area of distributed systems and quality of service control.

The Open Group is involved in the HIJA (High Integrity Java) project, an EC-funded initiative focusing on defining and implementing a new High Integrity Java for future networked real-time embedded systems. The program was set up to advance real-time systems implementation technologies to support the development of ANRTS (Architecturally Neutral High-Integrity Real-Time Systems), and demonstrate that Java technology can form an appropriate ANRTS. In accordance with the current system design approach based on modeling, the ANRTS format is expected to become a key intermediate representation in the transformation process. 

Our Products

• CORDS (Communication Objects for Real-time Dependable Systems) - A microprotocol framework, derived from the x-kernel (similar to Ensemble), which can support the construction of complex protocols such the Internet Protocol stack (TCP/IP), router protocols, etc.) Used by DARPA's CACTUS and ARMADA projects.
• GIPC (Real-time Group Communications Protocol Suite) – a Group IPC system that supports atomic reliable communication among multiple processes
• SHAWS - a specialized server which uses the core protocol properties of GIPC, extended to provide fault-resilient clustering properties for the Apache web server
• MK7 - full function microkernel-based system which supports Real-time and time-sharing operation)
• MK++ - a microkernel which provides a single code base capable of supporting high-assurance, scalability, real-time, distribution, SMP, fault handling, and performance, all built in an object-oriented B3 fashion that can be evaluated.)
• AD3 - a scaleable, microkernel-based system, which allows scalability for SMP systems and multi-node distributed systems while retaining a single system image
• CONVERSANT – an active network node designed to defend against denial-of-service attacks, developed as a part of DARPA Active Networks program
• DCE/MOTIF® - Motif® is the industry standard graphical user interface, (as defined by the IEEE 1295 specification), used on more than 200 hardware and software platforms. It provides application developers, end users, and system vendors with the industry's most widely used environment for standardizing application presentation on a wide range of platforms. Motif is the leading user interface for the UNIX® based operating system. The Motif graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit facilitates the development of applications for heterogeneous, networked computing environments. By providing application portability across a variety of platforms, the Motif environment helps protect valuable investments in software and user training. Motif is also the base graphical user interface toolkit for the Common Desktop Environment (CDE).

In the media

EmbeddedTouch.com: Towards more flexible and hardware independent java technologies for embedded real time systems...