/k/ Embedded Java Solutions (prounounced “kah”) and Quest Innovations B.V. will partner to develop a MIPS-based 32-bit CPU core that will run Linux software in parallel with a hardware execution engine for Java byte codes. The device will target low-cost Java-enabled embedded devices.

/k/ says it will use its “in-depth knowledge” of Wonka, a Java virtual machine and class libraries set released under a BSD-style license, to help Quest design the Java 32-bit CPU core. In exchange, /k/ says it will gain access to Quest's existing work porting Wonka to the MIPS 4Kc, the base version of several MIPS cores released last October.

A prototype of the /k/-Quest design is expected late in Q3, 2004.

“Our 32-Bit single cycle Java CPU core combines a hardware execution engine for Java byte codes with a MIPS CPU core,” explains Quest CEO Richard Meester. “Both operate completely in parallel, so for instance when the Java CPU core encounters an operation too complex to perform in hardware — such as resolving a class reference — it can hand over that task to software running on the MIPS Core and continue executing byte codes from another thread. To achieve this degree of parallelism, the MIPS Core will run a customized version of the Linux kernel along with a customized version of the Wonka Virtual Machine.”

“Tomorrow's embedded Java applications will be a far cry from the simple games people associate with J2ME today,” says /k/'s Chris Gray. “We are moving into an age of component-based architectures and self-configuring networks: technologies like Bluetooth and WiFi are just a beginning. The Java technologies which will drive all this, such as Jini and OSGi, make exceptional demands on the VM logic, for example, class loading and interface resolution. This is an area where our Wonka-based products are already pre-eminent; combine this with parallel execution of Java byte codes in hardware and you have the perfect architecture for tomorrow's mobile and wearable devices.”

 
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