Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2003-3 (VOL.54, NO.2)

Special Issue : EJB & Linux

• Changing Way of Application Development Based on EJB Technology

A Web system for supporting the business model of an enterprise must have high quality and reliability and be developed in just three or four months. Fujitsu implements a project under the concept of "revolution in manufacturing" to develop thorough reuse of technical knowledge, software design specifications, and software components on the basis of EJB technology. With this project, Fujitsu aims to minimize the development of new specifications and components (or reduce manufacturing to the minimum) and make system delivery to customers more efficient and quicker than ever before. This paper describes three approaches for this project - increasing the efficiency and speed of system delivery to customers by the use of software reuse technology, making application-common functions as middleware components, and establishing a software component trading market - to further shorten development terms and improve product quality through the accumulation and reuse of technical knowledge, software design specifications, and software components. These three approaches are described in more detail in three other papers in this issue.

• Increasing Efficiency and Speed of System Delivery to Customers by Use of Software Reuse Technology

Customers want to obtain high-quality applications quickly at low prices. Especially in recent years, customers have required corporate information systems to be developed in shorter terms than before to keep up with fluid business environments and perpetual changes in information technology. To answer the customers' requests and requirements, Fujitsu is changing the way of application development to increase the efficiency and speed of system delivery to customers under the key concept of "reuse." This paper describes Fujitsu's project for system design by reusing mainly Java and EJB products. It also introduces the detailed methods adopted in this project and some approaches to the reuse of software components, including the maintenance of upstream designs, use of application architectures, reuse of method designs, application of frameworks, and promotion of standardization.

• Making Application-Common Functions as Middleware Components

The Java language has conventionally been used simply for creating easy applets and scripts. However, the language is lately being used as a core part of new technology, represented by Servlet and EJB, for large-scale corporate systems that must be highly reliable. As Java applications are further expanded, the technologies that Java application developers must understand become wider in range and more profound. Moreover, to meet the customers' demand for a short development cycle, improvements in application productivity and quality will be essential to application development in the future. Middleware products provide the common functions required for applications and can reduce programmer's workload, increase the efficiency of application development, and improve application quality. This paper describes the usefulness of framework products on the basis of actual data with some examples of systems that use Fujitsu's framework products.

• Establishing Software Component Trading Market

Distribution and reuse of software components have been long-standing issues in the industry. There have been only a few cases in which software component markets have been formed, but trading of software components has been successful in the case of GUI components and between advanced companies in the United States. The factors of these successes include the spread of the standardized technologies of componentization and the planning and implementation of the business models in which component vendors can easily participate. On the other hand, some remaining problems in component trading have been found through past attempts to establish component markets. The remaining problems lie in component granularity, architecture unification, and component business. These problems are expected to be solved by the breakthrough due to EJB technology and the consortia formation in the industry. Through the activities of the Fujitsu component center, Fujitsu is supplying EJB-based component products that conform to industry standards and is taking steps to implement business models that allow customers to access the products easily.

• New World of Computer Technology Opened up by Linux

In 1991, Mr. Linus Torvalds, a Finnish postgraduate, developed a UNIX operating system (OS) clone called "Linux." He then disclosed the source code of Linux to the open source community, and as a result Linux rapidly evolved into a feature-rich OS. The quick growth of Linux was fueled by increasing demands for server OSs along with the popularization of the Internet. This paper first examines how Linux has grown up functionally and why it has been widely accepted as a server OS. Then, it reviews how Linux has been used on Internet servers by major Internet service providers (ISPs) and in mission-critical systems of enterprises. This paper also describes Fujitsu's future road map for products and its present activities in the open source community in relation to the expected expansion of Linux deployment in the mission-critical systems of enterprises.

• Cutting-Edge Linux Technologies

Linux has already become one of the major operating systems in use on desktop and server machines. Kernel developers around the world have been upgrading and improving the performance of Linux via the Internet to expand the scope of its application. The Linux kernel presently being developed will take large-scale backbone operations such as enhancements of file systems and improvements of process scheduler performance into strong consideration. It will also include the addition of new functions that have been designed for embedded applications. This paper describes the leading-edge technologies incorporated in the Linux kernel currently being developed for the 32-bit Intel architecture (IA32), which is the most prevalent hardware platform for Linux systems. This paper also introduces Fujitsu Laboratories' research and development activities for Linux application in large-scale backbone operations.

• Penetration of Interstage into Linux-Based Mission-Critical Systems

Many businesses have been running enterprise systems that use the Internet and intranets and are constructed with web applications on Java and CORBA technologies with Solaris or Windows, which is an open operating system. Businesses are now considering the introduction of middleware products to their enterprise systems with an eye to using Linux as a new operating system. As was initially planned, Fujitsu has developed Interstage as a middleware product for constructing web-centric enterprise systems and is delivering products that incorporate up-to-date and standardized technologies. This paper takes a look at the initial plans for Interstage development, the features of Interstage products, our approaches to the development, and our compliance with standardization. It also explains that Interstage is an open software product and describes some typical Interstage technologies that have been applied to mission-critical systems. Lastly, it describes Fujitsu's development plan for responding to the notable trend toward using Linux as an operating system.

• Technologies for PC Cluster Systems

Based on the recent major upgrades of the hardware performance of personal computers (PCs), PC cluster systems, which link multiple PCs together via high-performance interconnections to achieve high throughput capacity, have been constructed and are coming to prominence. However, consistent, high-speed execution of applications on a PC cluster still requires some new functions and technological improvements. This paper gives a general description of PC cluster systems and the key technologies for achieving stable and high-application performance on a PC cluster. It also gives an overview of the SCore cluster system software developed by the RWC project and Fujitsu's present activities and future prospects for PC cluster systems.

• BBSwatch Service for Countering Rumors on the Internet

The rapid growth of the Internet as a new mass medium has not only created many opportunities for companies but also exposed them to the threats of consumer boycotts and damage to corporate image by defamation and malicious rumor. Fujitsu has developed the "BBSwatch" service as an effective countermeasure for such threats on the Internet. The service enables a company to search easily for rumors about itself written on bulletin boards and web sites, view the data as simple graphs and tables, and thereby minimize the potential damage caused. The service also provides a source of market information to analyze and understand consumers' opinions, thus assisting future business activities. This paper describes the present problems concerning the Internet, the BBSwatch solution to the problems, the technology behind the service, and examples of applying BBSwatch to customers' business.

• Scientific Software Development Environment (SSDE) for Parallel Programming in Network-Distributed Environment

We have developed a new platform environment, called the Scientific Software Development Environment (SSDE), for parallel programming in a network-distributed environment. The basic technology of SSDE has also been incorporated in the Parallelnavi V2 series products for PRIMEPOWER machines as the base technology for the parallel programming environment using such languages as FORTRAN, C, and C++. SSDE is a suitable programming environment for the network age because its basic technology includes many typical ideas and elements, for example, object-oriented design. The framework of SSDE can be applied to not only scientific computation but also other fields of computation. This paper describes SSDE's development background. It also describes some of SSDE's distinctive features, for example, its network-transparent operability, system scalability, operational flexibility, support of system development by a team, and mechanism for embedding tools into application programs.

• Practical Use of Lead-Free Tin-Zinc-Aluminum (Sn-Zn-Al) Solder

Fujitsu has implemented a company-wide effort to progressively reduce the use of lead and eventually eliminate this environmental pollutant from its products. As part of this effort, it has developed a new lead-free solder that consists of tin, zinc, and aluminum and yet offers superior productivity and joint reliability. The new lead-free solder has a melting point equivalent to that of a tin-lead eutectic solder, and enables devices to be packaged at a lower temperature than with the increasingly popular tin-silver-copper solder. The new lead-free solder ensures highly reliable soldering both for existing component pins that contain lead, as well as lead-free component pins which will be widely used in the future. Thus, the new lead-free solder accelerates the elimination of lead from products. Fujitsu has already used PC boards containing the new lead-free solder in some products, and plans to extend its use to other products. This paper describes the characteristics of the new lead-free solder and the results of a study on its practical use.

• Push-Type Information Distribution Software "FLAIRINC" for Presence Services

More than 73 million people now use mobile phones, which have become indispensable, personal information processing terminals throughout the world. Today there are more than 7.8 million broadband, fixed-line subscribers. In response to this trend, Fujitsu is focusing on the presence services demanded under such a network environment to provide real-time information anytime and anywhere. Fujitsu's "FLAIRINC" software package is designed to provide such real-time communication. This software can handle any type of presence information for sharing among all people and systems, so that more advanced collaborative information distribution systems can be easily set up. This paper outlines the presence services and introduces the concept, examples of use, and characteristics of FLAIRINC. This paper also introduces FPSIGN, the comprehensive solution service that includes this product, as being promoted by Fujitsu.