Conference abbott::java

227.0. "DIGITAL JDK V1.1 Beta Kit Now Available" by TLE::DDAVIS (Dianne Davis - Java/C++ Product Manager * 381-6008 * ZKO02-3/N30) Mon May 12 1997 19:22

Digital Equipment Corporation is pleased to announce the availability of 
the Java Development Kit V1.1 beta release for Digital UNIX V4.0A or 
V4.0B.  The JDK 1.1 is a major enhancement to the JDK 1.0.2 release.

The DIGITAL JDK V1.1 can be downloaded at no charge from:
http://www.unix.digital.com/products/internet/java.html


Highlights of the DIGITAL JDK V1.1 release include:

  -  A just-in-time compiler (JIT). The JIT compiler provides on-the-fly 
     compilation of your application's Java byte-codes and runtime calls 
     into native Alpha machine code. This results in significantly faster 
     execution of your Java application compared with running it using the 
     Java interpreter.  We have run CaffeineMark(tm) benchmarks with this 
     JIT and the industry-leading results are shown below.
  -  Implementation of Java threads on top of native (POSIX) threads. 
     This means that different Java threads in your application can run on 
     different processors, provided that you have a multi-processor machine. 
     It also means that your Java application will run properly when linked 
     with user-supplied code or native APIs (such as DCE) that are also 
     implemented using POSIX threads. Users of this JDK should encounter no 
     problems in using it with native methods that are themselves threaded.
  -  First JDK 1.1 on 64-bit UNIX systems
  -  Increased performance of the JDK 1.1 interpreter over the JDK 1.0.2 
     interpreter
  -  Compatibility with the Java Compatibility Kit (JCK). Currently this 
     beta release passes more than 99% of the tests in the JCK.
  -  Enhancements to the JDK V1.1 over JDK 1.0.2 include:
	  -  Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) Enhancements - Strong focus on 
     	     quality and performance
	  -  Java Beans(TM) - Allows ISVs to create and ship Java components 
     	     that can be composed together into applications by end users
	  -  Java Native Interface (JNI) - Standard programming interface 
     	     for writing Java native methods and embedding Java virtual 
	     machine into native applications
	  -  Remote Method Invocation (RMI)- Create distributed Java-to-Java 
	     applications
	  -  JAR File Format - Java Archive file format
	  -  JDBC(TM)- Standard SQL database access interface
	  -  Networking Enhancements - Support for selected BSD-style socket 
	     options
	  -  IO Enhancements - Character streams, containing 16-bit Unicode 
	     characters
	  -  Math Package - BigInteger and BigDecimal classes
	  -  Object Serialization - Extends the core Java IO classes with 
	     support for objects
	  -  Reflection and Introspection - Enables Java code to find and 
	     access the fields, methods, and constructors of loaded classes
	  -  Inner Classes - Simpler syntax for creation of adapter classes
	  -  Internationalization - Allows development of localizable 
	     applets
	  -  Security and Signed applets - Allows developers to incorporate 
	     low-level and high-level security functionality into Java 
	     Applications

DIGITAL JIT: Industry-Leading Performance

An Alphastation 500/500, running DIGITAL UNIX and shipping today, has 
attained the fastest CaffeineMark benchmark figure produced by any UNIX 
vendor's system. Digital's JIT compiler attained a CaffeineMark version 
2.01 score of 3,166, and a CaffeineMark version 2.5 score of 2,932. The 
Alphastation 500/500 was running Digital UNIX V4.0B and was configured 
with a 500Mhz 21164 Alpha chip, 128MB of memory, and 8mb of bcache using 
a PowerStorm 4D60T graphic controller. As a convenience for comparing 
the DIGITAL JIT performance with other vendors, we are providing the 
CaffeineMark results for both V2.01 and V2.5. Indications from observing 
other vendors' results are that certain tests report slower results with 
V2.5 than with V2.01, and the DIGITAL JIT is consistent with that trend. 
In the future, we will report results for V2.5, since that is the 
version that will become most widely used.

-----------------------------------------
   DIGITAL JIT CaffeineMark Benchmarks

	    CaffeineMark    CaffeineMark
		V2.01		V2.5
-----------------------------------------
Sieve		 7169		 2791
Loop		10365		10367
Logic		12694		12542
String		  272		  918
Method		  743		  740
Float		 4492		 4510
Image		 1075		 1060
Graphics	  783		  757
Dialog		   60		   60

CaffeineMark	 3166		 2932
------------------------------------------

This kit is the first beta release of the DIGITAL JDK 1.1. We will be 
releasing modifications to this kit during the testing phase and will 
make them available periodically until the final JDK 1.1 is released. At 
present we anticipate the DIGITAL JDK V1.1 to be finalized within 2-3 
months, incorporating the JDK 1.1.1 changes from Sun, and will be 
released in the final form as V1.1.1.

Digital is incorporating the Java(TM) Development Kit as a standard 
component of the Digital UNIX Operating System. As a result, we are now 
able to offer our customers the opportunity to download this software at 
no charge. This is an opportunity for our customers to begin to take 
advantage of the Java Development Kit immediately, without waiting for 
the normal Digital UNIX release cycle. A future release of Digital UNIX 
will be distributed with the Java Development Kit as part of the Digital 
UNIX distribution kit. All customers who purchase systems with Digital 
UNIX, customers under warranty for Digital UNIX, and customers with 
service agreements for Digital UNIX will automatically receive the Java 
Development Kit as part of the standard distribution. 

    I don't see any mention of audio support.  Did it get put back in ?
    
    Tom

Audio support will be included in the next beta update, which will actually be V1.1.1.  You can expect to see this
within the next couple of weeks (no definite date yet).

Dianne Davis

We've had (local) complaints about the installation of the beta kit being
rather tricky.

You need to install a rather large kernel patch for pthreads -- and the
the inventory for the patch doesn't quite match the provided files.

Also other nits about being unable to easily decipher the install documentation.

oh well, it's beta, and we're lucky to be getting it this quickly ;)

keep up the good work.

steve.

Any hints on how to get Java Workshop 2.0 up on Alpha?

-Reggie

BTW. The Hotjava browser freezes at times and sometimes crashes. Do you know
about this or do you want an official bug report?

>>Any hints on how to get Java Workshop 2.0 up on Alpha?

NT or Unix?  In either case, my understanding is that hints aren't
sufficient - there's some development work that must be done to make it
operational.

>>BTW. The Hotjava browser freezes at times and sometimes crashes. Do you know
>>about this or do you want an official bug report?

I don't think we know about it.  A bug report with a sequence of events to
reliably reproduce the problem (if at all possible) is what we need.
Thanks!

	cheryl