Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx04.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Jim Janney Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: Java processors Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:02:44 -0600 Organization: and may our postilions ne'er be struck by lightning Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: <5f101d00-4bc9-4750-939c-cd53605bfa0e@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Info: mx04.eternal-september.org; posting-host="PnllQd880uOddfy6hsxHuQ"; logging-data="28929"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX194L/gXShZLsM/zINMSh4op" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:5COFsvP/10nQ6fAMX03pKW7l0Oc= sha1:/ZpyGtJJ3t531Y5X8g32YjJkAPI= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:15825 BGB writes: > On 7/5/2012 10:28 AM, Eric Sosman wrote: >> On 7/5/2012 11:01 AM, bob smith wrote: >>> What ever happened to those processors that were supposed to run Java >>> natively? >>> >>> Did Sun or anyone else ever make those? >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_processor >> >> (If you need help clicking links, just ask.) >> > > and, of those, AFAIK, ARM's Jazelle was the only one to really gain > much widespread adoption, and even then is largely being phased out in > favor of ThumbEE, where the idea is that instead of using direct > execution, a lightweight JIT or similar is used instead. > > part of the issue I think is that there isn't really all that much > practical incentive to run Java bytecode directly on a CPU, since if > similar (or better) results can be gained by using a JIT to another > ISA, why not use that instead? The cost of entry into CPU manufacturing is far from cheap, and once you're in it's anything but a level playing field. Intel has an enormous advantage due to the amount of money it can plow into improving its manufacturing processes. And the demand for a system that can only run JVM-based software is relatively limited. Back in the day Niklaus Wirth had a system that was optimised for running Modula-2, with its own processor and operating system written in Modula-2. I don't remember now what it was called. -- Jim Janney