Solid.net Embedded Servers

Many consumer products today are using embedded servers as part of their user interfaces. One of the most expensive parts of a project today is the user interface. Using a browser for that interface reduces many of those costs and removes the need for particular hardware configurations or locations for the user interface. (For example, the user interface for a piece of machinery in a manufacturing plant can be easily located anywhere in the plant, not just next to the machine.) It becomes simple to even allow multiple user interfaces. By using a browser, a company can potentially use less expensive personal to create user interfaces. The pages created by the embedded server can be anything from basic HTML to complex data handling functions.

We did our first complex embedded server project in 1997. We ported the XINU operating system to a Motorola MVME162 system, wrote an ethernet driver, and then installed the actual operating code (99% C and about 1% assembly language) from the system we were replacing. Even though it has had a number of iterative changes, that project is still operating.

We have an online example in our client side JAVA programming section of a different system. In this instance, the JAVA program runs in a browser window and communicates with an embedded server that is part of a system operating a sawmill. The JAVA program allows a viewer to look at a log and the lumber products made from it from difference reference points (above, right side, left side, etc.). Return to our home page and click on the client side programming link to obtain details of that project. Our customer for the system we did in 1997 would like us not to publicly discuss it online. However, we are not restricted from discussing it offline and with a few days notice we could also demonstrate the output from it.

If you would like to discuss if it could be mutually beneficial for us to provide services to you or to assist you in your own automation or realtime programming efforts, send an email message to newservice@solid.net with a note about what services you would like to discuss.

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last changed 25-May-03