e2001 Your Digital Future - Bangkok Post Special Supplement

SOFTWARE

JINI waiting in the wings

Sun's new tool needs proper vehicle

Tony Waltham

JINI is a Java-based connection technology that enables an otherwise dumb device to communicate with others, to advertise its presence and its capabilities to other devices. Or, as Sun Microsystems' Software Evangelist Simon Phipps puts it, "JINI is a visionary idea ... about the advertising and subscription of services between parties that are able to discover each other."

Scientists at Sun Microsystems where this technology was developed say that the breakthrough with JINI is that there is no need for anything more than a network to exist between these devices _ there is no need for a database or repository of drivers or other information about the devices that are connected.

Java co-author and evangelist James Gosling says that with JINI "it's an end-to-end thing, a device-to-device thing" and it does not depend on operating systems. You just add power and the network connection and other devices discover the newly-introduced device, which announces its capabilities or the services that it seeks or provides to others on the network.

However, estimates by senior Sun Microsystems executives, including Mr Phipps and Chief Scientist Bill Joy, are that the technology is still a few years ahead of its time.

Mr Joy pointed out to Database in June this year that JINI needed a persistent network to function and that homes were not generally connected to the Net permanently, while wireless networking presented problems.

Mr Phipps said that JINI was waiting for a medium to express itself through, noting that there were probably two areas where this might come to the fore, one being industrial instrumentation, but the other huge one would be in the area of wireless.

Sun is now strongly promoting its vision of a service-driven network, and he said that we would see JINI growing stronger and coming to the fore as more and more companies and even individuals began to engage services over the Internet.