Mar 02, 2006Sun Microsystems has released Java System RFID Software version 3.0. Sun reports that enterprise resource planning software vendor SAP has certified the Java application for integration with its Auto-ID Infrastructure (AII).
Sun has also announced plans by electronics giant Samsung to deploy the Java System RFID Software for its RFID tagging initiative in order to comply with a major retailer mandate. Meanwhile, Comtrol—a manufacturer of device networking appliance and servers—will embed the Sun RFID middleware in an edge controller.
"Comtrol is building our software into its new edge controller, which is like a router that can control a number of RFID readers or other devices for RFID," says Sam Liu, Sun's director of RFID products.
Sun's acquisition of the SAP integration certification, Liu explains, is important because it enables Sun to build a direct connection between its software and SAP's AII middleware for RFID, a component of the SAP NetWeaver platform. As RFID devices collect data from RFID tag reads, the SAP middleware can filter and aggregate the pertinent information and send it directly to the NetWeaver platform. There, the data is handled in accordance to established business process rules. Previously, Sun or the end user had to customize this type of integration.
Java System RFID Software 3.0 is also available as an embeddable application designed to run directly on edge devices, such as fixed and handheld interrogators and RFID printer-encoders, rather than on a separate server. "The new embeddable version of the software has a dramatically reduced footprint," says Liu, "so it is optimized to run on small devices, such as handheld readers. The key to our embeddable middleware is that we've taken the application-level events (ALE) platform and made it embeddable onto a handheld, so now you can use small devices to do things such as search for a certain tag."
ALE is EPCglobal's software standard interface for filtering and consolidating RFID data from interrogators.
Available now, Sun Java System RFID Software 3.0 runs on Sun's Solaris 10 operating system, as well as on other leading operating systems, such as Linux and Microsoft Windows. Sun provides the software either through annual subscriptions or as an outright purchase. Specific pricing information has not yet been released.
