Outpost - The Embedlets Reference Implementation |  |
Embedlet Containers are designed to be implemented on a wide number of platforms and used in a diverse number of scenarios. The platforms include everything from small PIC based uVMs, mid sized TINIs and TStiks, high-end JSamps and JStiks and even PCs and backend servers. The use scenarios for Embedlets are equally diverse and so one might think that selecting a target area for the Embedlets reference implementation would be quite challenging.
As it turns out, Embedlets started from an idea for an embedded systems application called Outpost that was designed to allow all of a company's processes to be monitored and controlled through its backend enterprise systems. Outposts were conceived as being 'protocol neutralizers' that could be easily interfaced to numerous industrial sensors and actuators using a 'wide fan out' configuration and then attached to backend enterprise systems using an XML based protocol.
Since the need for a technology like Outpost was what originally started the Embedlets idea, it was decided that Outpost would make an excellent name for the Embedlet specification's reference implementation. Even though Outpost is an Embedlet container that has been optimized for use in a process monitoring and control scenario, Outpost's code base is being designed so that it can be used for a wide range of Embedlet container use scenarios.
