Sun to reveal details of Jxta

April 25, 2001 —

Aiming to create a standard for p-to-p (peer-to-peer) networking, Sun Microsystems will formally announce its Project Jxta on Wednesday.

Sun hopes Jxta, short for "juxtapose," will become the foundation for an immense p-to-p network of devices. By sharing the Jxta source code, the company will encourage third-party developers to help improve Jxta and build applications for the platform.

"Today's p-to-p applications use different technologies. We want to agree on one protocol that everybody will be able to use. Jxta won't just service PCs, but is also designed to work on devices like PDAs and cell phones," said Hans Appel, chief technology officer for Sun in Northern Europe and a member of Sun's Visionary Council.

Jxta will offer features such as the ability to create communities, monitoring of the network, fast polling of nodes, and encryption, said Appel, adding that the platform will be thoroughly tested for bugs, including security flaws, before final launch.

Hans Appel, Sun Microsystems
It will be well designed and well developed -- let that be where we differ from Microsoft.

"It will be well designed and well developed -- let that be where we differ from Microsoft. I expect we will ask specialists to probe the platform," said Appel, noting that Sun is used to meeting the strict quality demands in its professional data center world.

Unlike the infamous p-to-p file swapping service run by Napster, Jxta does not rely on a central server for directory purposes, Appel said.

Although several APIs have been finished and the platform has been tested, Jxta has not been fully completed, according to Appel.

"Call it a beta," he said.

The platform as it will be presented Wednesday builds on technology developed in-house by Sun's chief scientist Bill Joy and by InfraSearch, a company that was acquired by Sun last month. InfraSearch powers the platform's search capabilities, Appel said.

IDG News Service