Sun Microsystems opens Java center

Sun Microsystems said yesterday that it plans to invest $50 million in Korea over the next four years to develop Java technology for Asian countries. The California-based provider of networking hardware and software opened the Korea Java Research Center yesterday afternoon at a ceremony at the headquarters of its Korean subsidiary, in southern Seoul. The research center is Sun Microsystems’s first in Asia. Studies will concentrate on developing Java-based embedded software and mobile software. The center will start with a workforce of 16 engineers and will expand gradually, the company said. Java is a computer programming language designed to develop applications so they can operate on various platforms without modification. Developed by Sun Microsystems in 1995, Java can be used to enable Internet access on devices such as cellphones or personal digital assistants. Chief executive officer Scott McNealy, who was in Korea for the opening of the center, said that Sun Microsystems chose Korea because of its unlimited potential in becoming a fully-networked society like Silicon Valley. He added that Korea’s talented information technology workforce convinced the company to invest here. The center is the result of aggressive wooing on part of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, which has spent the past couple of years trying to persuade multinational technology firms to set up research facilities in Korea. by Wohn Dong-hee