IBM Releases Fastest SDK For Java 6

IndioMan writes "IBM is releasing an SDK for Java 6 and is sponsoring an Early Release Program to gather feedback from the Java community. Product binaries and documentation are available for Linux on x86 and 64-bit AMD, and AIX for PPC for 32- and 64-bit systems. In addition to supporting the Java SE 6 Platform specification, IBM's SDK also focuses on platform stability, performance, and diagnostics. It's tops on every benchmark."

64?

x86-64 isn't just for AMD anymore you know!

Open Java?

Whatever happened to all that "Open Source Java" thingie?

Re:Open Java?

Sun didn't want to delay the launch of Java 6, so it's Java 7 that's open source.

Re:Open Java?

I forgot to include my sources for that:
Behind the scenes [sun.com] -- from Mark Reinholds Blog.

Re:Open Java?

That's not true. The source code has already been opened as a project:

https://jdk.dev.java.net/ [java.net]

The fact that they haven't made their first release from that product changes nothing.

Under what license and is it opensource....?

Inquiring minds want to know.

x86_64 plugin = Heros

If they include a x86_64 browser plugin they'll be heros. It's 2007 and Sun still refuses to release a 64-bit browser JRE plugin because..... why?

Re:x86_64 plugin = Heros

By March, 100% of Java will be available under GPL, right? So at that point, I would think that anybody who has the skills and time will be able to clean up any code that's not 64-bit clean, and compile a 64-bit browser plugin. I'm looking forward to seeing some really good things happen in OSS with Java, now that all the licensing impediments are going away.

Re:x86_64 plugin = Heros

There are 2 ways to get a 32-bit Java plugin running under a Linux/AMD64 environment (BTW, AMD64 is the official arch name implemented by AMD and Intel, x86-64 has been officially abandonned):

• Use the Blackdown Java plugin, they provide a 64-bit version (it works ok, but I have come across at least 1 applet able to crash it).
• Use nspluginwrapper [beauchesne.info] that allows you to load 32-bit plugins in 64-bit browsers.

Of course, since Sun has open sourced Java, a 64-bit Java plugin is likely to appear soon.

Re:x86_64 plugin = Heros

maybe because the JIT compiler has to convert the java instructions to x86-64 instructions, so it's not just a simple recompile.

Right, because that's so different when it's running under a browser than under the standalone VM that ALREADY EXISTS FOR X86-64.

Java for PS3?

Looks like it could run, not only on AIX/PPC but on a Playstation as well:

        * Linux® on x86
        * Linux® on PowerPC® 32-bit #!
        * Linux® on PowerPC® 64-bit
        * Linux® on AMD64/EM64T
        * IBM AIX® on PowerPC 32-bit
        * IBM AIX® on PowerPC 64-bit

What benchmarks?

It would be nice to see a few links uphold that claim.

This was released back in November of 2006!

This was originally released back in the middle of November 2006!

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/forums/dw_th read.jsp?forum=367&thread=142364&cat=10 [ibm.com]

Not all benchmarks better

Scimark [nist.gov] wasn't even close:

IBM java6:
Composite Score: 482.8282568762099
FFT (1024): 551.8002634079949
SOR (100x100): 568.7588552216857
Monte Carlo : 64.62096017621073
Sparse matmult (N=1000, nz=5000): 219.84569330460474
LU (100x100): 1009.1155122705532

Sun java6:
Composite Score: 617.5119705454583
FFT (1024): 510.7586118547276
SOR (100x100): 829.8686416193439
Monte Carlo : 118.25350583943022
Sparse matmult (N=1000, nz=5000): 470.6355733620428
LU (100x100): 1158.0435200517468

Higher scores are better. Both run on AMD X2 5000+

Sun VM stomped on IBM's. That wasn't true with earlier VM's. IBM used to smoke Sun on scimark. Maybe there's more development to be done.

Does this mean a faster Eclipse?

That'd be nice. At the moment, eclipse has this sluggish performance when it comes to swt on linux. The VE project on my ubuntu box is much slower than in windows, and if this new jvm can perform better in this aspect, then I'm happy to read this. (there are alternatives to ve, and overall performance is fine, but again, faster is better...)

Re:Does this mean a faster Eclipse?

The slow performance of Eclipse is not due to the JVM, it's about the SWT library and it's bindings with the native libraries. There was an SWT port called SWT Fox [sourceforge.net] that quickened things up a bit. It doesn't seem to be maintained anymore, but the performance speedup was very noticable. Changing the VM probably won't make the slightest of difference.

That cost me two moderations. Why aren't moderations in a discussion depended on the *branch* of the discussion? Oh well...

Where are the sources ?

SUN has released the sources to it's compiler and JDK.

IBM where are thou the benefactor and promoter of Open Source ? Show us the GPL sources to your JDK and compiler!

Not working on Debian unstable

When started on Debian unstable it terminates immediately with:

Could not create the Java virtual machine.

This is probably caused by NPTL-less glibc. Anyone with suggestions how to fix it?

Great!

Now if they could only port Websphere to it! Seriously, I tried to install a web service on a new Websphere server, just upgraded to Websphere 6.0. It wouldn't run, because 6.0 only supports Java 1.4.2! The new V6.1 runs 1.5, but doesn't support web services unless you install an extension, and even then doesn't fully support the spec (only the @WebService and @WebMethod annotations). I find it odd that IBM supposedly has such cutting-edge JVM technology, but it just trickles down to their actual money-making products...

WSAD Won't Support It

Why is IBM even bothering to write their own JDKs? Don't they know that WebSphere and WSAD are dead? JBoss and Eclipse have murdered them in their sleep. Having had to deploy on WebSphere and develop on WSAD, I would say it was a mercy killing. I would be curious to see the sources to see how they did it. See the compromises. Java Lectures for Free - Free Java Lectures [googlepages.com]

Microsoft

In this url, http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/java// [microsoft.com] , it is stated,
The MSJVM will reach its end of life on December 31, 2007. Customers are encouraged to take
proactive measures to stay informed about obsolete software and move away from the MSJVM
in a timely fashion. The MSJVM is no longer available for distribution from Microsoft and
there will be no enhancements to the MSJVM. Microsoft products and SKUs currently
including the MSJVM will continue to be retired or replaced by versions not containing
the MSJVM on a schedule to be announced.

what doest it mean?

ozgur uksal

Re:The Fastest JDK?

Funny, but even Sun's JDK blows Perl out of the water.

Re:The Fastest JDK?

Why did the parent modded as troll? It's quite true. For example, look at The Computer Language Shootout [debian.org]. Sun's JVM is much faster than Perl in almost every benchmark except for startup times. Perl's memory consumption is somewhere better, but not even close to the same degree that Java is faster.

Those benchmarks are based on Java 1.5, too. 1.6 is even faster.

Re:The Fastest JDK?

Why did the parent modded as troll?

Because this is slashdot, and perl is one of the Chosen Few Languages, along with C, Ruby, Python and PHP. Java, being both closed (for the moment) and slow (5 years ago on the client side) is not. Therefore, any statement that compares Java favourably with one of the Few Chosen Languages must be either a troll or flamebait.

It's easier when you stop fighting the groupthink.

Re:The Fastest JDK?

Because this is slashdot, and perl is one of the Chosen Few Languages, along with C, Ruby, Python and PHP. Java, being both closed (for the moment) and slow (5 years ago on the client side) is not.

I believe you mean "Chosen-Few-Languages-for-Slamming". they all get it from the slashcrowd, in no particular order:

• Java - slow, bloaty

• C - old and krusty, pointers baaaad, get with the times

• Ruby - it's the new Visual Basic

• Python - haha whitespace

• PHP - insecure, noobs

• Perl - gruesome syntax and readability

Re:The Fastest JDK?

I know the statement was tagged as funny, but Java is quite fast these days. Java7 will only get faster with some really spiffy JVM ideas. I don't see Python, Perl, and Ruby catching up for a while.

It seems to me that once Java is opened up and is included with every Linux distro out there, Java will not be perceived as large and slow anymore. It will be a simple apt-get, yum, etc away. It will just work.

Re:The Fastest JDK?

In the meanwhile, we've still got customers stuck on 1.3, because our "write once, run anywhere" code doesn't run on 1.4, and it's too much effort to puzzle out why because Sun's runtime is just such a mess.

There could be several reasons why Java 1.3 code won't run on 1.4. One is if you use sun.* or com.sun.* packages directly, which is funcamentally against portability guidelines. Another could be real incompatibilities. There are very few incompatibilities between 1.3 and 1.4. They are listed here:
http://java.sun.com/javase/compatibility_j2se1.4.h tml [sun.com]

If you keeping customers from using Java 5.0 or Java 6.0 because you can't sort this out, you are keeping them from major performance and functional improvements.

Re:The Fastest JDK?

1998 called, and they want their joke back.

Hasn't been funny or true for a long time...

Re:Vulnerability

FTA

Systems Affected
Sun Java Runtime Environment versions

        * JDK and JRE 5.0 Update 9 and earlier
        * SDK and JRE 1.4.2_12 and earlier
        * SDK and JRE 1.3.1_18 and earlier