Borland will release a version of its CORBA (common object request broker) middleware product for MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition (CGE). VisiBroker 7.0, already shipping on other platforms, enables legacy and new CORBA applications to be integrated with modern technology stacks, including .NET, J2EE, Web Services, and SOA (service-oriented architecture), Borland says.

CORBA is a vendor-neutral OMG (Object Management Group) standard for application communication and interoperation. It was prominent in the mid-90s, when Apple, IBM, and others touted it as a more capable alternative to Microsoft's DOM (distributed object model). Apple even built a never-released operating system called Copland that relied heavily on CORBA to create the appearance of a completely unified user interface, rather than one comprised of separate applications.

Borland says that today, CORBA is widely used in telecommunications networks, stock exchanges, and defense systems, and that VisiBroker 7.0 can increase the return on legacy and new CORBA investments.

VisiBroker offers a “complete CORBA environment,” Borland says, for “developing, deploying, and managing” CORBA-based, distributed applications. VisiBroker 7.0 aims to better support today's highly distributed, complex, and heterogeneous application environments, Borland says. For example, C++ and C# applications native to the .NET platform can “participate equally” with CORBA-based C++ and Java applications, in “tightly-coupled, cooperating applications,” according to the company.

Other claimed new features include improved transaction performance, greater control over system resources, and new performance optimization features.

Jorge Rodriguez, VP of engineering at Borland's deployment products group, stated, “VisiBroker 7.0 enables customers to deploy existing and new CORBA applications with even greater levels of performance and control, as well as evolve to next-generation architectures requiring multi-technology integration and support for SOA.”

Dan Cauchy, director of product management at MontaVista, stated, “Embedded data communication systems require high-performance, reliable software infrastructures to meet stringent carrier demands.”

MontaVista partnered with Objective Interface Systems on CORBA technology in 2003, hinting at telecom applications. More recently, MontaVista's CGE product gained support for Linx, a highly scalable, high-performance open source IPC (interprocess communication) technology championed by Enea.

Availability

VisiBroker 7.0 is available now for Windows, HP-UX, and Solaris. It will ship on AIX and Linux this summer, Borland says.

Additionally, a Q2 upgrade will bring Borland's J2EE application server, known as “AppServer,” into compliance with the J2EE 1.4 standard. AppServer is “well suited for embedding into packaged software applications and environments that require close integration between CORBA and J2EE applications,” Borland says.

 
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