How do I implement SIGALRM in Java

Hi,

I've written a class that uses an IBM proprietary API to access an IBM UniData database to execute several subroutines written UniData's native language and known only to those UniData programmers that manage the database. The problem is that these subroutines write to the database and if there is any record locking issue, my Java calls hang waiting for the subroutine to return. The obvious solution is to use a SIGALRM which is easy to implement in C and in Perl, but I have no idea how to do the same in Java (an googling for a solution hasn't helped). Can anyone give me an assist here or recommend another mechanism.

Thanks,

Rob Tanner
Linfield College