WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment

WebSphere® Everyplace Micro Environment is a Java™-powered offering with a runtime environment that provides the foundation for the deployment of e-business applications to small mobile devices. By using industry standards to combine the portability of Java technology with the power of WebSphere, IBM® brings the convenience of mobile devices to e-business solutions.

Java support: WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment has been tested and certified to meet the following Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) specifications (formerly known as J2ME), as defined by the Java Community Process. WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment supports:

WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment is available for custom engagements on personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, cellular telephones and other embedded devices.

Integrating devices with business applications: The use of industry standards and middleware enables device access to many existing e-business applications. By testing middleware and server connectivity, WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment combines the convenience of mobile devices with the power of e-business. When used with other middleware products, many existing enterprise applications can be extended to server-managed mobile and pervasive devices:

Development tools:
WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment (WEME) can be used in the Eclipse Development Platform environment. An Eclipse plug-in is available, which allows developers to configure WEME runtimes for build, launch and debug support.

For CLDC/MIDP-based development, developers can choose from several popular industry tools, including MIDP development tools available from the Eclipse Web site. Contact your IBM sales representative for more information.

WebSphere Everyplace Custom Environment provides a complete runtime environment for the deployment of embedded applications to real-time control systems and other devices where Java ME certification is not required. It delivers a production-level runtime environment for embedded applications that adheres to the fundamentals of embedded systems development: flexible, fast, small and smart.

See the WebSphere Everyplace Custom Environment site for complete information.

Configurable virtual machine
At the core of both WebSphere Everyplace Micro Environment and WebSphere Everyplace Custom Environment is the IBM J9 virtual machine and bytecode interpreter. J9 virtual machine implements a configurable, compact, fast and predictable architectural layer that provides a common interface for application programs regardless of the underlying device hardware or operating system. J9 runs on an operating system and manages interaction with the operating system and device hardware. Because the virtual machine is carefully designed with portability in mind, it is implemented through an operating-system-independent layer that uses the appropriate resources from the underlying real-time operating system.

In a resource-constrained environment, such as a handheld computer, configuration flexibility is very important. The J9 virtual machine is configurable over a wide range of settings, including the following:

Common J9 virtual machine across platforms and profiles
When porting an application to cover as many devices as possible, having a consistent virtual machine implementation across the different environments makes porting the application easier and faster. The virtual machine needs to buffer the application developer from the nuances of each different environment. Other competitors have one virtual machine for CLDC, a second for CDC, and so on. Each time an application is ported between the two virtual machines, problems will be found because of the differing implementations.

In contrast, IBM uses a common J9 virtual machine across multiple platforms, such as pay per click (PPC), application response measurement (ARM), x86, etc., across multiple operating systems (Windows® Mobile, Symbian, Linux®, etc.), and across multiple configurations/profiles (MIDP, CLDC, CDC, etc.) so that the behavior of the virtual machine is consistent. This makes porting applications from one configuration to another configuration and from device-to-device easier and faster.