Software used for jet entertainment system

The entertainment system will use Java software running on the Aonix Perc Ultra virtual machine on top of MontaVista Software's MobiLinux operating system and the Freescale i.MX3 processor.

Aonix' Perc has been selected for use in an in-flight entertainment system to be used on corporate jets.

The system will use Java software running on the Aonix Perc Ultra virtual machine on top of MontaVista Software's MobiLinux operating system and the Freescale i.MX31 multimedia applications processor.

Perc Ultra is a virtual machine and toolset expressly created for demanding embedded and real-time systems requiring J2SE support.

Perc Ultra delivers the ease and efficiency of Java Standard Edition support without sacrificing integrity, performance or real-time behaviour.

It offers AOT and JIT compilation, remote debug support, deterministic garbage collection, standard graphics and extended commercial RTOS support.

The Perc product line also features Perc Pico, a virtual machine designed for hard real-time applications requiring fast execution, small footprint and access to low-level devices.

To support customer needs, Aonix provided a port to the ARM Embedded Application Binary Interface (EABI) specification, as well as Java interfaces to the OpenGL cross-platform open solution for 2D and 3D graphics and support for OSGi, the open remote services framework for Java.

After looking at Java solution candidates Perc Ultra was selected based on a number of factors.

Support for Java 5 Standard Edition was an important factor in being able to provide the required capabilities for OpenGL and for OSGi.

Aonix provided a Java OpenGL (JOGL) wrapper to enable access to OpenGL libraries from within a Java context.

The project required support for the new ARM EABI.

In response, Aonix produced a port of Perc Ultra for ARM-EABI.

The EABI specification is defined by ARM and is required by the most recent GCC cross tools and Linux kernels for ARM architecture CPUs, such as those supplied with MontaVista's MobiLinux 4.1 for the Freescale i.MX31 processor.

Support for either software floating point or the new vector floating point (VFP) hardware in the i.MX31 processor is included in this port.

Ahead-of-time and just-in-time compilation modes are provided in addition to interpreted execution of Java software.

Debugging support is available under all execution modes.

"The availability of Perc Ultra for the Freescale i.MX31 processor running MobiLinux from MontaVista supports the growing market needs for the fast creation and efficient execution of graphics-intensive applications", said Dan Cauchy, Director of Marketing for MontaVista Software.

The system is expected to be deployed in tens of thousands of jets beginning in 2009.

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