Software, silicon acceleration brew a stronger Java

Although I recently decided that an advanced cell phone couldn't replace my computer, I'm still experimenting to see if I can disprove my past conclusions (see "All-in-one cell phones: not a one-for-all panacea," EDN, Oct 31, 2002, pg 67). The e-mail and Web-browsing capabilities in my latest Samsung SPH-N400 CDMA phone are more robust than those of its Ericsson GSM predecessors, but I still find them to be incomplete. They don't let me view graphical and richly formatted HTML-encoded e-mail, for example, or deal with MIME (multipurpose-Internet-mail-extensions)-encoded file attachments. And, after becoming used to viewing HTML-encoded Web pages, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol)-encoded counterparts are a constrained substitute.

Third-party-software provider Reqwireless bridges these functional gaps with its Mobile Java J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition)-powered EmailViewer and WebViewer, each $16.99. The company also offers the ReqwirelessWeb development-tool kit, enabling Mobile Java applications to fetch, post, manipulate, and display HTML content; ReqwirelessEmail, which enables Mobile Java applications to send, receive, and display e-mail content; and ReqwirelessDB, a JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) driver and driver manager, enabling Mobile Java applications to exchange real-time information with any back-end database using the java.sql.* interface.

EmailViewer and WebViewer do an impressive job of rendering even complex HTML, as long as it doesn't require support for JavaScript, Java applets, Macromedia flash, or CSS (cascading style sheets). At 56 and 47 kbytes, respectively, the programs also have impressively small memory footprints. Reqwireless plays some interesting tricks to boost apparent performance, such as displaying the first few lines of text before rendering the remainder, as well as displaying all of the text before rendering embedded images. But, being Java-based, and running on a low-power-consuming—that is, slow—processor, the programs are still more sluggish than e-mail and Web-browser clients running on a notebook PC.

NanoAmp Solutions, a company to date best known for its ultra-low-power SRAMs, tackles the Java-performance problem with its less-than-$5 MOCA-J (Memory Oriented Coprocessor Accelerator-Java, Picture). Intended to accompany a flash memory, and an SRAM or PSRAM (pseudo SRAM), in a multidie, stacked package, MOCA-J accelerates 206 of the 227 byte codes that the Java-virtual-machine specification defines, executing many of them within a single clock (see "Silicon contends with stuffed and shrinking packages," EDN, June 13, 2002, pg 49). Estimated boosts in performance range from 20 times, measured on an overall geometric mean of ECM (Embedded CaffeineMark) benchmark scores as well as across various J2ME and MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) applications, to 100 times on individual ECM tests, algorithms, and code loops.

Faster execution through hardware acceleration also likely leads to much lower energy consumption than the software-centric alternative. NanoAmp Solutions is shipping samples to potential packaging partners to support high-volume designs, and production is scheduled for the end of the second quarter. The company is also considering offering MOCA-J in its own multidie, stacked products to serve lower volume applications.

NanoAmp Solutions, 1-408-573-8878, www.nanoamp.com.

Reqwireless, 1-519-743-8549, www.reqwireless.com.