Real-Time Java™ Technology and Life in a Digital World Are Keynote Topics At Embedded Systems Conference San Francisco

CMP Media (NASDAQ: UNEWY) today announced that the author of the popular "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," series and Java™ technology experts from Sun Microsystems will deliver keynote addresses at the upcoming Embedded Systems Conference San Francisco. Best-selling author Douglas Adams will give his personal view on the achievements and absurdities of information and digital technology. Java technology inventor James Gosling, and real-time authority Greg Bollella, will discuss the future of real-time Java technology.

The keynotes are a highlight of the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) San Francisco, the world's top educational forum for engineers, designers and managers working with embedded systems. Featuring 171 classes and 15 full-day tutorials from April 9-13 at the Moscone Center, the conference focuses on some of the fastest growing areas of embedded design, including Internet Appliance Design, developing with programmable logic, and system-on-chip.

Douglas Adams will talk about what it means for us to be living in a world in which we are almost inventing the future in real-time on Tuesday, April 10 at 12:00 p.m.

"Orwell, writing "1984," foresaw a future in which we would be dominated by a single Big Brother," said Adams. "What nobody foresaw was that we would instead have millions and millions of Little Brothers, Sisters and Cousins all working for us, on our desks, in our homes, in our pockets. Soon, instead of making computers out of plastic and metal, we will make plastic and metal out of computers. Can we even imagine what such a world will be like?"

In Wednesday morning's keynote address, James Gosling, the designer of the Java programming language, and Greg Bollella, senior staff engineer of Sun Microsystems, will demonstrate Java technology's real-time capability. They will discuss Java technology's potential for enabling open-platform computing and simplifying programming complexity for embedded systems in the same way that it did for the personal computer industry.

Bollella and Gosling plan to illustrate real-time Java technology's deterministic capability in a demonstration of two independently controlled robotic arms playing "Chopsticks" on a single keyboard together. A separate embedded board drives each robot, demonstrating real-time Java technology's capability to keep them synchronized through the scheduling of software execution as pieces of code are executed at 20 millisecond intervals.

"Java technology is already used in a variety of embedded applications, such as cell phones and PDAs, for user applications," said Bollella. "But it also has tremendous promise for system software development. The Real-Time Specification for Java technology provides Java based runtimes with the predictability and access necessary to enable the development of system software in the Java programming language. We see an urgent need for high-level language support in the embedded systems industry."

"The trend in device development is to implement more and more functionality in software," said Gosling. "Real-time Java technology will greatly reduce the programming effort required for the increasingly large-scale software engineering projects required in the embedded systems industry. With the Real-Time Specification for Java technology, object-oriented programming will be available for applications such as telecom infrastructure, military command and control, and media applications, dramatically improving programmer productivity."

SPEAKER INFORMATION

Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" started as a late night BBC radio show in the UK. In addition to the best-selling books, there have been numerous adaptations on TV, stage, record, tape, computer disc and even a bath towel. Adams graduated in English Literature from Cambridge University, but sometimes wishes he had been a scientist instead and has been consoling himself with jokes ever since. He is one of the founders of The Digital Village, a UK-based multi-media company.

James Gosling is a vice president and fellow at Sun Microsystems. In addition to designing the Java programming language he also implemented its original compiler and virtual machine and is currently a contributor to the Real-Time Specification. Previously, he was a lead engineer of the window system at Sun. Gosling received a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, Canada in 1977 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1983.

Greg Bollella has been interested in algorithms and software architectures that support deterministic execution completion guarantees since 1992. Before joining Sun Microsystems Laboratories, he was a senior architect at IBM, where he led the Real-Time for Java Expert Group under the Java Community Process(SM) which developed the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) technology. At Sun Labs he continues to be actively involved in the continued development of RTSJ. Bollella holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

More information on the Embedded Systems Conference San Francisco is available at http://www.embedded.com/esc . Conference catalogs can also be obtained by calling 877-446-7799 or by e-mailing esc@cmp.com .

The Embedded Systems Conference is produced by CMP Media Inc. and is sponsored by EMBEDDED SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING magazine and ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING TIMES. Other conferences produced by CMP's Electronics Trade Show Group include the Embedded Systems Conference-Chicago, the Embedded Systems Conference-Boston, the Embedded Systems Conference-Europe, the Embedded Executive Summit, and the Communications Design Conference.

About CMP Media Inc.

CMP Media Inc. (http://www.cmpnet.com/) is a leading high-tech media company providing essential information and marketing services to the entire technology spectrum -- the builders, sellers and users of technology worldwide. Capitalizing on its editorial strength, CMP is uniquely positioned to offer marketers comprehensive, integrated media solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. Its diverse products and services include newspapers, magazines, Internet products, research, direct marketing services, education and training, trade shows and conferences, custom publishing, testing and consulting.

NOTE: Sun, Sun Microsystems, Java and Java Community Process are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: CMP Media Inc., 877-446-7799, or esc@cmp.com; or Miranda Brady, 650-691-1488, or Miranda@fscomm.com, or Wendy Lewis, 650-691-1488, both of FS Communications, for CMP Media Inc.

SOURCE: CMP Media Inc.

Contact: CMP Media Inc., 877-446-7799, or esc@cmp.com; or Miranda Brady,
650-691-1488, or Miranda@fscomm.com, or Wendy Lewis, 650-691-1488, both of FS
Communications, for CMP Media Inc.

Website: http://www.cmpnet.com/