IBM posts what it claims is fastest JVM for Windows
With Microsoft limited by legal rulings, Big Blue proves it can compete in Windows space with high-performance Java VM
April 12, 1999 — IBM on Monday posted a free Java virtual machine for Windows 32-bit platforms that it says is the fastest in the business.
The new Java virtual machine (JVM) can be used in conjunction with Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT to deploy and run Java applications and applets on those platforms, and have them run some 30 percent faster than with currently available JVMs, according to the SPECjvm98 and VolanoMark benchmarks, IBM said.
IBM’s Win32 JVM employs a third-generation just-in-time (JIT) compiler and mixed-mode interpreter to outflank the competition, which includes Java source Sun Microsystems and Windows source Microsoft, IBM said.
Microsoft had claimed the fastest JVM for Windows, but has not released new Java technology since being sued by Sun last year over its Java license. Sun is due to release its new HotSpot compiler later this month, but will charge for it.
The moves by IBM and other efforts by Novell and Intel to create fast, reliable virtual machines and JIT compilers does not pose a threat to Java’s ascension as a platform, but shows a broader base of support by more vendors to bring greater performance of Java on more platforms, said Anne Thomas, analyst at the Patricia Seybold Group in Boston.
IBM’s new JVM is Java certified, Thomas said, and most of the other Java products in the works by third parties are compatible with Java, so that Java objects can run down to the assigned platforms. Sun, she said, has not shown a keen interest in the JVM business, though the company was counting on making revenue from HotSpot when it arrives. IBM’s and Symantec’s free JIT compilers, which may prove as robust as Sun’s implementation, according to Thomas, may make any such profits moot.
The only possible fracturing pressures on Java remain in the embedded space, where Hewlett-Packard’s new clean-room JVM implementation, called Chai, is a potential competitor to Sun’s embedded version currently under construction. But, noted Thomas, Chai has proven to be sufficiently Java-compatible to bring performance benefits to Java in embedded systems without sabotaging Java’s write-once, run-anywhere goals.
“Chai is compatible with Java in the embedded space and it has nice features in the embedded space,” Thomas said.
As for IBM, the new Win32 JVM is designed to alleviate fears in the development community that Java support for Windows would wane should Microsoft back off from supporting Java, as well as to give Sun a run for its money in the JVM and JIT arenas.
“IBM has expanded options for our customers by offering the industry’s fastest, fully compliant JVM for the Microsoft platform. This technology will help our customers expand their e-business applications to new operating systems and run them faster,” Pat Sueltz, IBM’s general manager for Java software in Somers, NY, said in a statement.
IBM is also providing support for makers of programs using the new Win32 JVM, so developers will have an easier time writing Java programs for Windows. IBM will include technical and help desk support for the JVM, the company said.
IBM already offers JVMs for its own OS/2, AIX, OS/400, and OS/390 platforms. The Win32 JVM will become part of IBM’s Java Runtime Environment, included in the company’s Java Development Kit.
