OIS Announces a New Generation of Communications Middleware

Objective Interface Systems (OIS), the world’s leading provider of advanced communication fusion technologies for integrating widely divergent systems, today announced the next generation of OIS’s widely-adopted ORBexpress communications middleware. OIS’s ORBexpress middleware is an extremely fast, small-footprint framework for inter-process and inter-system communication in real-time and embedded (Internet-of-Things, IoT) systems, as well as high-performance enterprise cloud computing systems.

OIS’s 4th generation release of its popular real-time message broker communications software, ORBexpress RT for C++, complies with the recently released Object Management Group (OMG) IDL4 to CPP Language Mapping specification. This specification defines the mapping of OMG Interface Definition Language v4 (IDL4) to the C++ programming language. The specification addresses building blocks introduced in IDL4 by providing new mapping rules, not found in the classic IDL2 to C++ and IDL3 to C++11 language mappings. Further, this IDL4 mapping provides and synthesizes the first standardized Data Distribution Service (DDS) C++ language mapping along with a significant evolution of the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) C++ language mapping.

OMG’s IDL4 language mappings allow implementers of the classic mappings to extend existing IDL compilers and platforms to incorporate concepts from IDL4, such as extended data types and annotations, using a standard set of mapping rules that are consistent with the requirements and conventions of the previous IDL specifications.

As one of the lead authors of the IDL4 to CPP Language Mapping specification, OIS made sure that this new language mapping provided engineers with full access to new C++ language features and improvements so that the resulting application programming interfaces (APIs) are easy-to-use and can have high execution performance. In addition, OIS also ensured the specification offered simultaneous support of the classic IDL2 to C++ mapping. This reverse compatibility was especially important to OIS, given the extensive worldwide use of OIS’s conforming products.

OIS’s ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 product is the first commercially available communications middleware compliant with this new IDL4 to CPP Language Mapping specification. This ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 product provides software developers with a safe and secure programming paradigm on top of the world’s fastest message broker communication engine. The new C++ language features, now accessible to ORBexpress developers through IDL4, greatly enable safer programming.

OIS’s ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 products implement the new specification while maintaining full compatibility with and support of the classic IDL2 to C++ mapping. Thus, OIS’s ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 products provide seamless, simultaneous backward and forward compatibility between IDL versions 2 and 4, as well as with C++ versions C++98 and C++11 and later.

With the ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 product, software developers can utilize contemporary C++ features with concepts introduced in IDL4. These features include many new convenient and advanced types such as managed types (e.g., maps, vectors, string, array, bitmasks, bit sets), annotations (e.g., min, max, range, default on integral and floating-point types), managed and reference-counted pointers; struct inheritance, type traits, and template metaprogramming techniques. Using these newer types promotes safer programming by abstracting dynamic memory management away from the application programmer.

Safety-critical business processes are at the core of everything OIS accomplishes. When failure is not an option, customers choose OIS’s highly correct products for their solution. Like all OIS products, the ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 product underwent rigorous fuzz testing and static analysis to guarantee success in the world’s most challenging mission-critical environments.

“OIS is known for meticulously adhering to quality standards throughout the engineering design process,” said Chuck Abbott, OIS’s Director of Middleware Technology Product Engineering. “Our dedication to high-quality processes ensures that the ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 product maintains the high-robustness foundational to all OIS products.”

The ORBexpress RT for C++ v4 product is currently available from OIS. For more information on this new product and OIS’s ORBexpress product suite, please email: orbexpress-v4@ois.com

OIS’s ORBexpress product is an extremely fast, small-footprint framework for inter-process and inter-system communication in real-time and embedded (Internet-of-Things, IoT) systems, as well as high-performance enterprise cloud computing systems. Based on the open standard Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), the ORBexpress family of ORBs includes language mappings for C++, Ada, C#, Java, and VHDL. ORBexpress products support a myriad of embedded programming targets that are available in a comprehensive range of operating systems, microprocessors, and compilers. Software developers using ORBexpress can expect remarkable ease of integration and five-star customer support. A variety of independent benchmark tests found that ORBexpress is the smallest and fastest ORB in the industry.

OIS is a worldwide leader in highly correct technologies for mission critical systems. Designers of demanding, complex systems depend on and trust OIS technologies to keep their systems agile, fast, safe, and secure and have for over 30 years. These organizations use OIS products in aerospace, automotive, banking, data communications, defense, finance, government, industrial automation, medical equipment, robotics, telecommunication, and other mission-critical industries. OIS products are the foundation of worldwide systems valued at over $750B.

From tiny embedded systems to multi-enterprise, large-scale cloud computing infrastructures, OIS provides foundational technologies for constructing high-performance, safe, and secure systems.