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Oracle has clambered aboard the bandwagon for the internet of things, outlining a strategy for handling the torrents of data the company assumes will shortly flow from myriad smart-ish devices on the network's edge. The strategy was outlined last week at the Mobile IT Summit, where Oracle's Peter Utzschneider, a product …

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  1. Richard 12 Silver badge

    So you can write drivers in Java now?

    Who would have thought that?

    Oh yeah, you can't. And nobody even remotely sane would try to write for a sub-Arduino-scale device in Java.

    The sensors in these containers top out at around 8 MIPs, many are smaller.

    Almost everything that size is written in C these days, though some of the larger ones have moved to C++.

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    1. jake Silver badge
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      Re: So you can write drivers in Java now?

      Nobody sane writes drivers in anything but assembler.

      EOF

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      1. Mad Mike
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        Re: So you can write drivers in Java now?

        And therein lies your problem. You used the word 'sane'. Since when has that had anything to do with it?

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        1. jake Silver badge
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          Re: So you can write drivers in Java now?

          Not my problem, Mike.

          I choose my dancing partners very carefully ... and all are quite sane ;-)

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          1. Mad Mike
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            Re: So you can write drivers in Java now?

            A little bit of mild insanity just makes life more interesting.

            Of course, barking mad is something else. It would seem that you need a touch of the barking to make it into executive and senior management positions these days. No suggestion too stupid or mad. No common sense required.

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            1. billse10
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              Re: So you can write drivers in Java now?

              "Of course, barking mad is something else. It would seem that you need a touch of the barking to make it into executive and senior management positions these days. No suggestion too stupid or mad. No common sense required." I thought that was a requirement for writing IT marketing materials?

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      2. DrXym
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        Re: So you can write drivers in Java now?

        "Nobody sane writes drivers in anything but assembler."

        A fascinating theory, unfortunately one which a cursory glance at the Linux or BSD kernel would demonstrate to be false. The vast majority of drivers are written in in C with the assistance of kernel services and macros as required.

        C compilers are quite able to generate high quality drivers without tying them to one particular architecture.

        Mac OS X and Windows even allow limited use of C++ but with stuff like exceptions and RTTI disabled.

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        1. jake Silver badge
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          @DrXym (was: Re: So you can write drivers in Java now?)

          Dig in a trifle deeper, Xym.

          (good) C-coded drivers are hand-massaged after the compiler spits out the assembler code, before anything even resembling linking.

          Yes, modern C compilers are pretty good ... but they rarely do what I want the hardware to do at the driver level.

          Note that I said "sane". OSX & Windows need not apply.

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          1. DrXym
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            Re: @DrXym (was: So you can write drivers in Java now?)

            "(good) C-coded drivers are hand-massaged after the compiler spits out the assembler code, before anything even resembling linking."

            There are plenty dos and don'ts for kernel development but it doesn't mean C is not a suitable for development since it clearly, demonstrably is a suitable language for development. Especially in kernels that supports multiple architectures and where it would be desirable for a driver be portable regardless of the CPU being MIPS, ARM, x86 or whatever.

            "Yes, modern C compilers are pretty good ... but they rarely do what I want the hardware to do at the driver level."

            Like what? Most drivers do little more than marshal data to and from memory locations or messages from a bus. There really isn't much scope for improving the code since it's so straightforward anyway. And the more complex a driver is the more reason to use a higher level language. Linux has drivers for even complex hardware like GPUs which are written in C.

            "Note that I said "sane". OSX & Windows need not apply."

            So what OS are you thinking of? Clearly it's not Linux. Or BSD. Or OSX. Or Windows. Which kernel benefits from writing drivers in pure assembly? Which OS is so down to the metal that raw performance is paramount, even over code maintainability, or portability, or system stability. Perhaps you're writing code for some embedded system in which case, perhaps your point is valid in that scenario. I don't see it being valid for anything bigger.

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  2. jake Silver badge

    "Oracle's not created anything new"

    What else is new?

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    1. Spearchucker Jones
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      Childcatcher

      Re: "Oracle's not created anything new"

      Indeed. The days of "Oracle is the answer, now what's the question again?" are over. Larry's company is losing relevance fast. Maybe he should've steered it better than he does his yachts. Lacking in strategic relevance as he is, even SteveB is ahead of Oracle these days.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    See, I was asked to have a "strategy"

    ... to see if it sticks to the wall. Failing that, Oracle will resort to its usual strategy: acquire other products, squeeze support revenue from them, leave them die. And of course, keep squeezing support revenue from all other Oracle products. In the meantime, look for new customers to trap into the support revenue stream by making what apparently are huge discounts over the list prices to lure them.

    Oracle has launched significant new products only on the high end side of things, and it's very hard to get any growth out of these for an already huge company. I mean, how many million dollar Exadatas can you sell?

    If you find this comment too vitriolic, I'll be happy to be proven wrong. Can anyone name a recent Oracle product (released or acquired in the last five years) that has had any significant impact on the market after its acquisition or release? Seriously.

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  4. Cliff

    I love the Reg

    Whilst the rest of the tech press will reproduce the message of the seminar verbatim, the Reg doesn't hold back on calling bollocks, bollocks. You can almost hear the eyes rolling in the presentation hall...

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