Sun Microsystems Inc’s once-vaunted JavaStation network computer will have been on the back burner for at least two years by the time it begins shipping in volume, which is now slated for some time in the second half of the year, according to COO Ed Zander. The microSparc IIep-based JavaStation, which has been delayed and delayed again, is becoming embarrassing for Sun because of the huge hype generated at its announcement in October 1996 in New York. The ‘Krups’ model, which is what what Sun calls it 2.0 product, was supposed to have shipped in volume this quarter but it turns out there is still months of work to do on the JavaOS for Network Computers operating system which it will be its primary system software environment. Sun said it will begin to ship a ‘commercial’ version of the product at the end of the month though only in small numbers. Current JavaStation products run a version of JavaOS created by the company’s JavaSoft division before the operating system was handed over to the company’s SunSoft group. SunSoft says it’s still some months away from implementing the JavaOS for network computer services on top of the ChorusOS embedded, real-time operating system Sun acquired with Chorus Systemes SA last year. The Chorus work is going to underpin each of SunSoft’s JavaOS releases. Yesterday it announced JavaOS for Consumer devices supporting PersonalJava, tailored for screenless appliance devices that work with EmbeddedJava, will follow. SunSoft says it will make available a slew of facilities to help customers’ transition to the ChorusOS kernel. The group is currently showing a ‘Goosebump’ network computer built into a children’s lunchbox. We learned a lot with the 1.0 JavaStation release, said Sun COO Ed Zander. The company admits it spent too much time touting the JavaStation hardware at the expense of the WebTop software it should have focused on. It says instead of building a campaign around the JavaStation NC it could have touted a full-function, end-to-end Java WebTop environment as a way of enabling PC users to turn their PCs into NCs without buying new hardware. Meantime, Sun and Toshiba are to develop Java network computer technologies for the mobile market based upon the Mobile Network Computer Reference Specification (MNCRS). Sun says it will evolve its Netra j server software to manage mobile Java clients. Toshiba recently introduced its first mobile network computer, the Confolio 300. á
