Sun and EDS Demonstrate
Real-Time, Voice-Activated
Process Control Environment
HOUSTON, Texas - October 19, 1998 - Using a model railroad
exhibit at ISA Expo/98 (Booth 5313), Sun Microsystems, Inc. and EDS will demonstrate
TLXTM for the Solaris operating environment, a meta-architecture with embedded level
controls that delivers real-time, voice-enabled process control across the enterprise.
Designed to inject greater flexibility and productivity into process control, TLX
utilizes Sun's JavaTM programming language and SolarisTM operating environment and
allows users to manage large complex systems with minimal human intervention.
"The TLX proof-of-concept demonstration at ISA shows how Sun is working with
allies such as EDS to extend the Java enterprise computing initiative to the manufacturing
plant floor," said Reed Hornberger, director of manufacturing market development,
Sun Microsystems, Inc. "TLX sits on top of Java technology, providing a simple
user interface and the capability to monitor and control all the manufacturing processes
of the most complex factories in real-time. This Web-based control feature also
benefits our customers by providing them with investment protection for legacy installations
of factory-control systems."
"TLX technology is in sync with the business trend towards enterprise integration,"
added Rick Sneddon, information analyst, EDS. "It gives manufacturers the power
to move process control into the enterprise. It also empowers individuals by allowing
them to identify and remotely-control their 'best practices' instructions so that
TLX can run based on these scenarios."
The model railroad, which will be on display throughout the ISA Expo in Houston,
is designed to demonstrate a moderately complex real-world control solution developed
with Sun's Java technology and deployed in the Solaris operating environment. The
demonstration consists of four trains and one track, with each section of the track
containing sensors to monitor the positions of the trains.
In addition, the railroad, which includes 100 pieces of equipment, will demonstrate
TLX's distributed computing capabilities by controlling and performing complex tasks
with the equipment. The demo environment is akin to that of a relatively complex
batch process application with multiple recipes running on multiple pieces of equipment
as is often found in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and specialty chemical manufacturing
industries.
Following are several of the mission-critical tasks that the model railroad will
demonstrate: every five to 10 minutes the four trains will coordinate their operations
to travel in synchronous loops around the track; two of the locomotives will perform
a sequence of operations consisting of picking up train cars at specific locations
and moving/dropping them off at other locations; and one of the locomotives will
pull into a loading dock for cargo pick-up. The latter mission will involve coordinated
human interaction (with voice recognition and speech annunciation) between the station
supervisor and support personnel, a robotic crane for loading heavy cargo, and an
intelligent pump for loading petroleum into a tank car.
TLX, which is being developed commercially by Auspice, a Greensboro, N.C., based
technology company, and integrated for purposes of the model railroad demonstration
by EDS, a leader in the global information services industry, is based on Timeliner
technology which was developed for use on mission critical space projects.
"We are excited to be working closely with Sun and EDS in demonstrating TLX
and its rich set of features including the meta-architecture, English language-based
User Interface Language, and a powerful engine that can execute multiple process
control scripts in parallel," said Andrew Gordon, chairman and CEO, Auspice,
Inc.
TLX also has a speech interface, based on Sun's Java Speech APIs (JSAPIs), which
enables even "computer-illiterate" users to vocally interact with their
industrial automation systems in order to control production processes. Lernout
& Hauspie, a speech and language technology company, provided the text to speech
technology, which is JSAPI compliant and converts digital, textual data into simple
audible speech. Additionally, even the level of human intervention needed for process
control is very flexible. TLX enables companies using the technology to "grow
to autonomy," by allowing the amount of human involvement to be decreased to
zero, in situations where complete autonomy is needed.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The
Network Is The ComputerTM," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW),
to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services
for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet.
With more than $9 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150
countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com. @Macarlo, Inc. @Macarlo's Shareware & Web OS/2 Java Lobby Member
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