Sun optimizes Java for ARM

Posted: 04/04/2002

EETimes reports “Sun Microsystems Inc. rolled out a Java Virtual Machine [Monty] at the JavaOne developers conference aimed at boosting the Java language’s performance nearly tenfold on next-generation [ARM-based] cellphones”. Nicholas Lorain, senior product manager for wireless Java technologies at Sun, said “The ARM architecture probably has 75 percent of the designs with PDAs and cellphones today, and market researchers think it will go to 80 to 85 percent in the next couple of years”. Even more speed increases are expected: “the next-generation version of Monty, due to ship in mid- to late 2003 … will work in a hybrid hardware/software collaboration with ARM’s next-gen Jazelle accelerator core”. The Register agrees with the importance of Java in the mobile space: “in many cases, network operators are pretty close to betting the farm on Java … Phones could therefore turn out to be the area where Sun unequivocally manages to turn Java into the standard”. Forbidden supports the Java standard and has Java implementations of its players.