Intrinsyc (Vancouver, BC), one of Microsoft's Windows CE system integration partners, has unveiled what is said to be the first reliable technology that can network Linux and Windows devices using the Windows COM model — a key Windows technology. The technology is derived from deviceCOM, a Windows CE component developed by Intrinsyc in the course of supporting customers wanting to use Windows CE in “real… world” data acquisition and control applications like vending machines, medical instruments, and factory automation. With more than 95% of the world's annual computer chip production going into such non-PC applications, and with both wired and wireless connectivity rapidly becoming ubiquitous, the ability to interconnect non-PC systems for real-time data exchange has become a necessity, rather than a nice-to-have feature.

For enterprise systems (desktop and server systems) a core Microsoft technology called the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) allows communication between client applications and COM objects over a network. This permits applications that support to the COM architecture to distribute themselves across multiple systems and share functions and data. Microsoft did not, however, provide DCOM capability for Windows CE. To fill this void, Intrinsyc stepped in with deviceCOM, which the company created in order to permit Windows CE systems to share COM objects with Windows NT/9x/2000 systems across a network. According to Intrinsyc's vice president of development, Bill Gordon, “it turned out that people are now using [deviceCOM] for Windows NT/9x/2000 to NT/9x/2000 also, because of problems with straight DCOM.”

Intrinsyc's latest development is a port of its deviceCOM to Embedded Linux. Using deviceCOM, embedded Linux systems can link up with enterprise Windows systems that support the popular Microsoft COM and DCOM protocols. Providing deviceCOM support for Embedded Linux had a bonus, too, because — in contrast with Microsoft's three different operating systems (Windows NT, ME, CE) — Linux is the same OS whether implemented on a server, desktop, or embedded system. Consequently, Intrinsyc's deviceCOM now provides DCOM support across all sizes of Windows and Linux systems — from enterprise to embedded — and in any mixture.

In developing deviceCOM, it was necessary for Intrinsyc to tackle the problem of providing a small-footprint implementation of the COM/DCOM protocols that would be suited to the constrained resources of embedded systems. Accordingly, the company made deviceCOM for Windows CE fit within 350 KBytes of memory and offers a similarly small footprint for the Embedded Linux version. Another challenge in developing deviceCOM was providing the robust connection management and failure reporting functions required for reliable communications and deterministic responses, as required by many “real world” data acquisition and control embedded systems.

What's next? According Intrinsyc's CEO, Derek Spratt, the company “wants to see the broadest possible acceptance” of DCOM as a technology for communicating among applications on Linux and Windows systems, embedded and otherwise. To that end, Intrinsyc intends to promote DCOM as a universal communications standard for both wired and wireless connections. Naturally, they hope customers will choose to incorporate deviceCOM as a component into those systems, rather than reinventing the wheel.

 
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