Real Time Logic announced the availability of embedded web server for the VxWorks real-time operating system. The web server makes it easy to remotely monitor, control, and configure embedded applications running on the VxWorks real-time operating system. Barracuda is particularly effective for complex distributed systems, enabling browser clients to monitor and control multiple devices at the same time with full authentication, authorization, and encryption facilities.

Barracuda utilizes the standard HTTP protocol to facilitate secure transfers of user data, firmware, and application control data between clients and servers. Unlike conventional HTTP-based clients, Barracuda provides an EventHandler that enables HTTP- and Java-based clients to monitor and control multiple event-driven embedded applications residing on multiple devices in real time. The full-duplex, asynchronous EventHandler protocol stack, which sits on top of HTTP, gives EventHandler clients the same benefits as regular HTTP clients, including the ability to bypass proxies and firewalls.

The EventHandler uses a compact (32 kbytes), real-time, Secure Socket Layer stack (SharkSSL), which supports hardware crypto encoding and decoding for common hardware crypto engines, to establish secure client-server communications.

Barracuda's EventHandler features install-on-demand technology that enhances device efficiency and reduces memory requirements by minimizing the amount of application code that must be stored in local device memory. With Barracuda, users can store their device application code on a remote server. When the user activates an URL to an EventHandler-based application, Barracuda installs the DHTML browser application on demand. Barracuda also supports Sun's Web Start Technology, which enables remotely hosted Java applications to be installed on demand, in the same way that Java applets are downloaded on demand to PCs.