Java Platform, Micro Edition

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Micro Edition (ME)

Standard Edition (SE)

Enterprise Edition (EE)

PersonalJava (discontinued)

Java Platform, Micro Edition, or Java ME, is a Java platform designed forembedded systems (mobile
devices are one kind of such systems) . Target devices range from industrial controls tomobile
phones (especially feature phones) and set-top boxes. Java ME was formerly known as Java 2
Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME).

Java ME was designed by Sun Microsystems, now a subsidiary ofOracle Corporation; the platform
replaced a similar technology, PersonalJava. Originally developed under the Java Community
Process as JSR 68, the different flavors of Java ME have evolved in separate JSRs. Sun provides
a reference implementation of the specification, but has tended not to provide free binary
implementations of its Java ME runtime environment for mobile devices, rather relying on third
parties to provide their own.

As of 22 December 2006, the Java ME source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License,
and is released under the project name phoneME.

As of 2008, all Java ME platforms are currently restricted to JRE 1.3 features and use that version of
the class file format (internally known as version 47.0). Should Oracle ever declare a new round of
Java ME configuration versions that support the later class file formats and language features, such
as those corresponding JRE 1.5 or 1.6 (notably, generics), it will entail extra work on the part of all
platform vendors to update their JREs.

Java ME devices implement a profile. The most common of these are the Mobile Information Device
Profile aimed at mobile devices, such as cell phones, and thePersonal Profile aimed at consumer
products and embedded devices like set-top boxes and PDAs. Profiles are subsets of configurations,
of which there are currently two: the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and the
Connected Device Configuration (CDC).[1]
There are more than 2.1 billion Java ME enabled mobile phones and PDAs, [2] but it is becoming old
technology as it is not used on any of today's newest mobile platforms (eg iPhone, Android,
Windows Phone 7, MeeGo, BlackBerry's new QNX).

Contents

 [hide]

 1 Connected Limited Device Configuration

o 1.1 Mobile Information Device Profile

o 1.2 Information Module Profile

 2 Connected Device Configuration

o 2.1 Foundation Profile

o 2.2 Personal Basis Profile

 3 Implementations

 4 Getting started

 5 JSRs

o 5.1 Foundation

o 5.2 Future

o 5.3 Main extensions

 6 ESR

 7 See also

 8 Notes

 9 Bibliography

 10 External links

Connected Limited Device Configuration

Main article:  Connected Limited Device Configuration

The Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) contains a strict subset of the Java-class

libraries, and is the minimum amount needed for a Java virtual machine to operate. CLDC is basically
used for classifying myriad devices into a fixed configuration.

A configuration provides the most basic set of libraries and virtual-machine features that must be
present in each implementation of a J2ME environment. When coupled with one or more profiles,
the Connected Limited Device Configuration gives developers a solid Java platform for creating
applications for consumer and embedded devices.

Mobile Information Device Profile

Designed for mobile phones, the Mobile Information Device Profile includes a GUI, and a data
storage API, and MIDP 2.0 includes a basic 2D gaming API. Applications written for this profile are
called MIDlets. Almost all new cell phones come with a MIDP implementation, and it is now the de
facto standard for downloadable cell phone games. However, many cellphones can run only those
MIDlets that have been approved by the carrier, especially in North America [citation needed].

JSR 271: Mobile Information Device Profile 3 (Final release on 09 Dec, 2009) specified the 3rd
generation Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP3), expanding upon the functionality in all areas
as well as improving interoperability across devices. A key design goal of MIDP3 is backward
compatibility with MIDP2 content.

Information Module Profile

The Information Module Profile (IMP) is a profile for embedded, "headless" devices such as vending
machines, industrial embedded applications, security systems, and similar devices with either simple
or no display and with some limited network connectivity.

Originally introduced by Siemens Mobile and Nokia as JSR-195, IMP 1.0 is a strict subset of MIDP 1.0

except that it doesn't include user interface APIs — in other words, it doesn't include support for the
Java packagejavax.microedition.lcdui. JSR-228, also known as IMP-NG, is IMP's next generation that
is based on MIDP 2.0, leveraging MIDP 2.0's new security and networking types and APIs, and other
APIs such as PushRegistry andplatformRequest(), but again it doesn't include UI APIs, nor the game
API.

Connected Device Configuration

Main article:  Connected Device Configuration

The Connected Device Configuration is a subset of Java SE, containing almost all the libraries that are
not GUI related. It is richer than CLDC.

Foundation Profile

The Foundation Profile is a Java ME Connected Device Configuration (CDC) profile. This profile is
intended to be used by devices requiring a complete implementation of the Java virtual machine up
to and including the entire Java Platform, Standard Edition API. Typical implementations will use
some subset of that API set depending on the additional profiles supported. This document
describes the facilities that the Foundation Profile provides to the device and other profiles that use
it. This specification was developed under the Java Community Process.

Personal Basis Profile

The Personal Basis Profile extends the Foundation Profile to include lightweight GUI support in the
form of an AWT subset. This is the platform that BD-J is built upon.
Implementations

Sun provides a reference implementation of these configurations and profiles for MIDP and CDC.
Starting with the JavaME 3.0 SDK, a Netbeans-based IDE will support them in a single IDE.

In contrast to the numerous binary implementations of the Java Platform built by Sun for servers and
workstations, Sun does not provide any binaries for the platforms of Java ME targets with the
exception of an MIDP 1.0 JRE (JVM) for Palm OS. [3] Sun provides no J2ME JRE for the Microsoft
Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) based devices, despite an open-letter campaign to Sun to release a
rumored internal implementation of PersonalJava known by the code name "Captain America".
[4]
 Third Party VM's like JBlend and JBed are widely used by Windows Mobile vendors like HTC and
Samsung

Operating systems targeting Java ME have been implemented by DoCoMo in the form of DoJa, and
by SavaJe as SavaJe OS. The latter company was purchased by Sun in April 2007 and now forms the
basis of Sun's JavaFX Mobile. The company IS2T provides Java ME virtual machine (MicroJvm), for
any RTOS and even with no-RTOS then qualified as baremetal. When baremetal, the virtual machine
is the OS/RTOS: the device boots in Java. [5]

MicroEmulator provides an open source (LGPL) implementation of MIDP emulator. This is a Java

Applet based emulator and can be embedded in web pages.

The open-source Mika VM aims to implement JavaME CDC/FP, but is not certified as such (certified
implementations are required to charge royalties, which is impractical for an open-source project).
Consequently devices which use this implementation are not allowed to claim JavaME CDC
compatibilty.

Getting started

 Java ME SDK (3.0), available at project download page

 NetBeans Mobility Pack, available at project home page

 Eclipse Mobile Tools for Java, available at project home page

JSRs

Foundation

JSR
Name Description
#

68 J2ME Platform Specification

30 CLDC 1.x

37 MIDP 1.0
118 MIDP 2.x

139 CLDC 1.1

271 MIDP 3.0

Future

JSR
Name Description
#

297 Mobile 3D Graphics API (M3G) 2.0

Main extensions

JSR # Name Description

75 File Connection and PIM File system, contacts, calendar, to-do

82 Bluetooth

120 Wireless Messaging API (WMA)

135 Mobile Media API (MMAPI) Audio, video, multimedia

172 Web Services

177 Security and Trust Services

179 Location API

180 SIP API

184 Mobile 3D Graphics High level 3D graphics

185 Java Technology for the Wireless Industry (JTWI) General

205 Wireless Messaging 2.0 (WMA)

211 Content Handler API

226 SVG 1.0

229 Payment API

234 Advanced Multimedia Supplements(AMMS) MMAPI extensions

238 Mobile Internationalization API

239 Java Bindings for the OpenGL ES API

248 Mobile Service Architecture General

256 Mobile Sensor API

287 SVG 2.0

ESR

The ESR consortium is devoted to Standards for embedded Java. Especially cost effective Standards.
Typical applications domains are industrial control, machine-to-machine, medical, e-metering, home
automation, consumer, human-to-machine-interface, ...

ESR
Name Description
#

B-ON B-ON serves as a very robust foundation for implementing embedded Java
001 (Beyond software. It specifies a reliable initialization phase of the Java device, and 3 kind
CLDC) of objects: immutable, immortal and regular (mortal) objects.

MicroUI defines an enhanced architecture to enable an open, third-party,

application development environment for embedded HMI devices. Such devices
002 MicroUI typically have some form of display, some input sensors and potentially some
sound rendering capabilities. This specification spans a potentially wide set of
devices.

MWT defines three distinct roles: Widget Designers, Look and Feel Designers
and Application Designers. MWT allows same binary HMI application to run the
011 MWT same on all devices that provide a compliant MWT framework (embedded
devices, cellphones, setopbox-TV, PC, etc...) allowing for true ubiquity of
applications accros product lines (ME, SE, EE).

ECLASSPATH unifies CLCD, CDC, Foundation, SE, EE execution environments with

015 ECLASSPATH a set of around 300 classes API. Compiling against CLDC1.1/ECLASSPATH makes
binary code portable across all Java execution environments.