Sun Labs BOFs

BOF-4880
Targeting Project Fortress, a New Programming Language from Sun Labs, to the Java™ Virtual Machine
Speaker: Christine Flood, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tuesday, June 02, 7:30 PM - 8:20 PM, Esplanade 301

Track: Core Technology: Java SE & Desktop; Tools and Languages

Abstract:
JVM™ machines are being used in new, interesting, and unanticipated ways. What happens when the programming language you want to run doesn't have the same semantics as the Java™ programming language? How far can you push the JVM machine? Project Fortress has a different type system, a different threading model, and even different memory semantics. This session focuses on issues the speakers have faced and some they are still facing in writing a compiler/runtime system for a new programming language that compiles to Java™ bytecode.

Duration: 50 min

BOF-4679
Java™, the Internet of Things, and the Sun SPOT
Speakers: Roger Meike, and The Whole Sun SPOT Team, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Wednesday, June 03, 7:45 PM - 8:35 PM, Hall E 133

Track: Cool Stuff; Core Technology: Embedded / Real-Time / Java Card

Abstract:
Are you interested in how Java™ technology can be used to create new embedded applications? This session briefly introduces the Sun Small Programmable Object Technology (Sun SPOT), a small wireless sensor/actuator platform programmed entirely in the Java programming language, and presents the latest work in the Sun SPOT project. Attend the session to discuss the larger questions of how such platforms enable new approaches to embedded programming. How can small, power-limited devices store data "in the cloud," communicate with each other at globe-spanning distances, and get the most useful information to the user? Can or should Java technology programmers think of a vast collection of devices as a single entity?

The session includes numerous demos of Sun SPOT projects, and you are invited to share your own relevant demos (be they based on Sun SPOTs or not).

Duration: 50 min

BOF-5131
Project Wonderland: Build 3-D Virtual Worlds with Java™ Technology
Paul Byrne, Jonathan Kaplan, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Wednesday, June 03, 6:45 PM - 7:35 PM, Hall E 133

Track: Cool Stuff; Rich Media Applications and Interactive Content

Abstract:
Project Wonderland is an open-source toolkit for building 3-D virtual worlds. With a focus on real-world collaboration and Java™ technology-based extensibility, Wonderland enables developers to create new and innovative worlds that are easy to modify and share. This BOF is an opportunity for interested developers to learn about Wonderland and its underlying technologies and also meet members of this rapidly growing community.

Topics for discussion include

• Using a 3-D virtual world for business and education collaboration
• Building high-performance, graphical applications on the Java platform with JMonkeyEngine and MTGame
• Creating scalable, persistent worlds with the Project Darkstar game server
• Exploring the cool worlds being built by the Wonderland community

BOF-4953
FIRST (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology): FRC-FIRST Robotic Competition
Speakers: Eric Arseneau, Derek White, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Thursday, June 04 6:30 PM - 7:20 PM, North Hall 124

Track: Cool Stuff; Core Technology: Embedded / Real-Time / Java Card; Mobility

Abstract:
What do robots and FIRST have to do with Java™ technology? Come to this session and see firsthand what Java technology is enabling kids to do today with some cool hardware. Get to play with big competition robots and their teams.

FIRST is an organization whose mission is to inspire young people to become science and technology leaders by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills; inspire innovation; and foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

Robots are cool; robotic competitions are even cooler.

What happens when you add Java technology into the mix? You come up with a winning combination that allows kids and "adults" to have a lot of fun.

FIRST is always in need of technical mentors of all types and capabilities. How would you like to get the thrill of helping a young mind expand its horizons while having fun yourself? More than 1,500 teams, 40,000 kids, and 20,000 mentors are involved worldwide.

Come to this session to

• Find out what FIRST and FRC are
• Learn about mentoring opportunities
  • Software
  • Hardware
• See the robots and teams in action
• Interact with some teams and see the kids' enthusiasm

This session is intended for all comers. A couple of local teams with their robots will be there.

Duration: 50 min

TS-4403:
Creating Games with the Open-Source Multithreaded Game Engine (MTGame) Doug Twilleager, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tuesday, June 02 3:20 PM - 4:20 PM, Hall E 133
Thursday, June 04, 4:10 PM - 5:10 PM, Hall E 135

Track: Cool Stuff; Rich Media Applications and Interactive Content

Abstract:
This session's speakers have created a new open-source game engine framework that utilizes the power of multi-CPU machines that is now common in many people's desktops and laptops. This engine, initially developed for Project Wonderland, can be used independently for creating games. The main difference between this engine and others is that it has multithreaded capabilities while still presenting a single-threaded programming model to developers. The engine supports JMonkey Engine graphics, model import via Collada, an event distribution system, a processor execution system, and a pluggable collision and physics system. The session presents the technical details of this game engine framework. It explores the complete game engine framework by using demos and code examples to present the details of each subsystem and concludes by putting all the systems together to build a simple game.

Beginning and experienced game developers who attend this session will gain new insights into the possibilities of using multi-CPU systems. Other developers who want to visualize 3-D content by using game techniques will also find this new framework interesting and useful.

Attendees of this session will get

• Details on an open-source game engine framework
• New methods for utilizing multi-CPU systems in real-time visualization
• Exposure to the latest 3-D graphics techniques
• To see some cool demos

Duration: 60 min

TS-4538:
A Virtual Multimedia Office
Speaker(s): Eltjo Boersma, Ericsson; Jan van der Meer, Ericsson Telecommunicatie BV
Wednesday - 1:30pm - Hall E 133

Track: Cool Stuff; Rich Media Applications and Interactive Content

Abstract:
The Virtual Multimedia Office integrates a 3-D virtual world with mobile devices for real-time collaboration from anywhere. This session shows developers how to build a "mixed-reality" environment using Sun's 100% Java™ technology-based open-source virtual world software stack. It demonstrates how users can access the Virtual Multimedia Office from the road with only a smart phone, in their living room with a television and photo frame, or in a corporate meeting room with an electronic whiteboard and streaming video.

The session also covers the integration of the 3-D virtual world with a smart phone mobile client. It demonstrates how desktop virtual world client avatars interact with Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) client avatars. Even with limited capabilities, mobile phone users can navigate around the virtual world; chat with colleagues, using voice; attend meetings; watch presentations; use the interactive whiteboard; and place and receive phone calls to and from the outside world.

With a mobile phone, the session covers how Sun's Project Wonderland virtual world toolkit lets developers build a range of clients that access the same virtual world. Via live demos, it shows the mobile phone user interface and an experimental user interface using a consumer-grade photo frame to notify people at home of a request to join a meeting. That accelerometer-equipped frame can then be used to navigate around the virtual world, displayed on a nearby television.

Duration: 60 min

TS-5134:
Fusing 3-D Java™ Technologies to Create a Mirror World
Speaker(s): Scott Bennett, Steve Vaughan, SRA International, Inc.
Wednesday - 2:50pm - Hall E 133

Track: Cool Stuff; Core Technology: Java SE & Desktop

Abstract:
In the last few years, some exciting new 3-D tools, applications, and environments have come to the Java™ platform, promising enhanced visualization and collaboration. Examples of these technologies include the virtual globe provided by NASA's World Wind, the virtual worlds of Sun's Project Wonderland, and the game environments developed with jMonkey Engine. The convergence of these entertainment and information systems into a common platform provides opportunities for manipulating and visualizing real-world data. Imagine what you could achieve by combining your existing inves™ents in KML and other forms of geospatial data, the smooth animation and particle system simulations of a game, and a realistic view of the physical world in a single collaborative environment.

This session is oriented toward Java™ technology developers who would like to learn how to incorporate real-world data into the resulting unified 3-D environment. It provides

• An overview of the architecture and design of SRA International's API
• Brief coverage of technical challenges encountered during integration and how they were overcome
• Information, via example code, on how to use the API to create your own mirror world
• Live demonstrations of real-world applications being developed with the system

Duration: 60 min

TS-4978:
Project playSIM: Experimenting with Java Card™ 3 System Programming
Speakers: Eric Arseneau, Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Fritjof Engelhardtsen, Telenor
Wednesday, June 03, 2:50 PM - 3:50 PM, Esplanade 305

Track: Cool Stuff; Core Technology: Embedded / Real-Time / Java Card; Mobility

Abstract:
The Java Card™ system is the smallest Java™ platform available, but what can you do with it? This session covers some interesting examples involving the playSIM development kit.

playSim is an open-source development kit for prototyping new and creative Java Card 3 technology-based applications without the hardware limitations of today's smart cards. It combines the flexibility of the open Sun SPOT platform with the hard security requirements of SIM-card-based applications. Sun SPOT is used as an execution engine as well as a modular hardware platform to enable connection of different types of sensors and I/O interfaces.

See how the presenters combine the flexibility of open-source technologies such as Sun SPOTs and Squawk Virtual Machine with the commercial license aspects of the Java Card 3 platform.

Come see how to

• Experiment with Java Card 3 in the embedded domain through the I/O capabilities of the Sun SPOT platform
• Get started with Java Card 3 Servlets, even without terminal support
• Simulate SIM and smart cards with embedded radios
• Experiment with Near Field Communication (NFC), using regular radios
• Create new machine-to-machine interactions
• Add one or two boards to a Sun SPOT and have a ready playSIM kit
• Simulate smart cards with gigabytes of memory, using ordinary MiniSD cards

TS-4575:
Project Darkstar: A Scalable Application Server for Networked Games, Virtual Worlds, and MMOGs
Speaker: Owen Kellett, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Wednesday, June 03, 4:10 PM - 5:10 PM, Hall E 133

Track: Cool Stuff; Rich Media Applications and Interactive Content

Abstract:
Today's business applications take advantage of horizontally scalable, high-throughput-oriented computing platforms to meet the ever-increasing capacity demands of users. However, for developers of some applications -- including online games, virtual worlds, and social networking software -- the demands for short user response time and low latency are somewhat at odds with the high-throughput focus of modern systems architectures.

This session is an all-new deep dive into Project Darkstar, an open-source server-side Java™ platform that focuses on these problems and aims to enable developers of these applications to more easily and successfully harness the power of today's computing technologies. More than just a communications framework, Project Darkstar boasts a simple API that transparently provides a multithreaded, transactional, persistent, and scalable system without the need for zones or shards.

Any developer of networked games, virtual worlds, social networking software, or other online applications will benefit from this brand-new technical session, which provides an overview of the API and how the technology directly addresses these challenges. It also covers

• Typical technical challenges faced when developing scalable networked games and similar applications
• Recent advances and current work being done on and with Project Darkstar
• The actual design and code of Project Snowman, a new 3-D action game built with Project Darkstar

Duration: 60 min

TS-4945:
FIRST (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology): FRC-FIRST Robotic Competition
Speakers: Eric Arseneau, Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Brad Miller, WPI
Thursday, June 04, 2:50 PM - 3:50 PM, Esplanade 305

Track: Cool Stuff; Core Technology: Embedded / Real-Time / Java Card; Mobility

Abstract:
1.The Java™ platform is an interesting vehicle for teaching kids about programming.

2. FIRST is an organization whose mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering, and technology skills; inspire innovation; and foster well-rounded life abilities such as self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

3. Robots are cool; robotic competitions are even cooler.

What happens when you mix these three things? You come up with a winning combination that lets kids and "adults" have a lot of fun.

FIRST is always in need of technical mentors of all types and capabilities. How would you like to get the thrill of helping a young mind expand its horizons while having fun yourself? More than 1,500 teams, 40,000 kids, and 20,000 mentors are involved worldwide.

This session, for for novice to advanced developers, covers

• How FIRST ported Java technology to National Instrument's CompactRIO programmable automation controller
• The APIs FIRST has in place to program the robots through the CompactRIO
  • WPIlib
  • Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME platform) Information Module Profile (IMP)
  • Squawk Java Virtual Machine (JVM™ machine)
• The development process that enables these rather large robots to perform intelligent things
  • Live programming of these 4-to-5-foot-high robots
• An actual FRC team that competes
• How you can help

Duration: 60 min

LAB-5562:
Project Snowman: Developing a 3-D Multiplayer Game, Using Project Darkstar
Speakers: Owen Kellett, Daniel Templeton, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tuesday, June 02, 3:20 PM - 5:20 PM, Hall E 130-131

Track: Cool Stuff; Hands On Labs

Abstract:
Project Darkstar is a scalable service platform built specifically for games, virtual worlds, and the like. What Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE platform) has done for business applications, Project Darkstar is doing for the game industry. p>In contrast to traditional business applications, though, massively multiplayer online role-playing games, virtual worlds, and other networked games require very low latency and short user response time. This is at odds with the high transactional throughput focus of today's application servers. Project Darkstar boasts a simple and intuitive API tailored to these unique requirements.

n this Hands-on Lab, participants will walk through the process of building a 3-D, multiplayer, capture-the-flag-style snowball-fight game from the ground up. Built with Project Darkstar, Project Snowman will expose attendees not only to the details of the Project Darkstar API but also to typical challenges in 3-D game design.

Duration: 120 min

LAB-5529:
Project Fortress Programming Lab, or "You Too Can Write Concurrent Programs with Minimal Effort"
Speakers: David Chase, Christine Flood, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Wednesday, June 03, 11:40 AM - 1:20 PM, Hall E 132

Track: Hands On Labs; Tools and Languages

Abstract:
Project Fortress makes it simple to write concurrent programs, abstracting away threads and locks and enabling you to write your program by using mathematical notation. This Hands-on Lab runs some simple Fortress programs and helps you write your own.

Duration: 120 min