OSGi Alliance Announces the Immediate Availability of OSGi Service Platform Release 3
SAN RAMON, Calif.--April 2, 2003--The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi(TM)) Alliance announced today the release of OSGi Service Platform Release 3 (R3), an enhanced software specification for the delivery of managed services to devices in homes, cars, businesses, and other environments. This follows the success of Release 2, with more than a dozen member companies certifying their products against the standard and the development of products deployed on a variety of networks.
"We're very proud of the work that has gone into OSGi Service Platform Release 3," said John Barr, president of the OSGi Alliance, and Director, Standards Realization, Motorola. "Release 3 represents the efforts of the many experts and authorities available to the OSGi alliance through its membership. The need to bundle and deliver services like mobile information and commerce, interactive entertainment, on-demand content, enhanced telephony, telemetry and energy management, and remote home appliance control continues to be great. With the OSGi Service Platform, traditional and new service providers and network operators have the tools necessary to generate new revenue streams and profit pools from existing and new customers. Release 3 also satisfies many of the automotive information and entertainment platform requirements identified by OSGi member companies in the automotive industry."
The third release of the OSGi Service Platform specification extends the existing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) into new areas. A significant number of new services are defined and the basic specification has been enhanced with several functions to simplify the deployment of OSGi based applications including functions for XML parsing, controlled start order, and flexible generic I/O. Initiated by the automotive industry, but with cross-industry applicability, new specifications have been defined for accessing physical positioning, and constructing new data connections between pre-existing R3 software components.
Additionally, the specification includes recommendations for integrating UPnP(TM) and Jini(TM) services in an OSGi environment. This release also defines the minimum requirements on the execution environment for running an OSGi Service Platform. Chapters have been added to extensively describe a reference architecture and remote management architecture. The few modifications to existing APIs are backward compatible so that applications written for previous releases should run without modification on Release 3 compliant Service Platforms.
In accordance with OSGi Alliance policies, OSGi Service Platform Release 3 has been approved by its members and Board of Directors. The OSGi Service Platform Release 3 specification is available now for download from the OSGi web site at www.osgi.org.
The OSGi Service Platform supports network delivered services for a remote device that can then run locally on the device or in conjunction with other network resources. The specification is explicitly designed to be open and synergistic with a wide range of existing networking and computer technologies and enhances virtually all current networking standards and initiatives. In the same way, the specification adds value to existing wireline and wireless networks while being neutral to and complementing cable, WCDMA, xDSL and other high-speed access technologies. It allows service providers to deliver value-added services of their own and selectively allow delivery of services provided by third party providers. The OSGi compliance program establishes a common specification third parties can use to create value-added services. These services can be delivered over a variety of networking systems using platforms incorporating compliant OSGi Service Platforms.
About The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) Alliance
The Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) alliance, established in 1999, is an independent, non-profit corporation consisting of more than 40 leading companies operating in various vertical markets worldwide. The alliance provides the only vendor-neutral, multiple-sourced specification in the industry to deliver and manage multiple applications or services over wide-area networks to local networks and devices. The alliance also works to proliferate these open specifications through the sponsorship of technology, market, and user education programs. The consortium's Web site address is www.osgi.org.
Note to Editors: All company, brand and product names may be trademarks that are the sole property of their respective owners.