JavaOne 2008 - part 2: Big Booths
posted by John Rizzo
Oracle and BEA
Sun Microsystems
Last but not least in this article: Sun! Sun was massively present in the Pavillon, with many little booths. Sun Education booth took most of my attention: you know my passion for learning!
-- Part 1 was about small booths --
AMD and Intel
Still in the JavaOne Pavillon, you could not miss two large booths, these held by AMD and Intel. What the hell do these CPU hardware companies do at JavaOne? While I could understand that Sun promotes some of his servers at JavaOne, I was curious to see how AMD/Intel relates to Java.
They gave me a very reasonable explanation: over the years CPU companies have significantly improved their CPU capabilities; still few software companies take advantage of it. In order to make their improvements used and their live more meaningful, they help the software side.
It reminds me of my IBM years, while studying the AS/400-iSeries systems. They have a microkernel concept which is a software view of a CPU. The source code is compiled to executable microkernel instruction set. When the executable program is copied/installed on a specific hardware, the OS who knows the exact CPU, finishes the compilation process starting from the microkernel instructions to the CPU related machine code. Thank to this system, IBM could migrate customers from CICS processors to RISC processors effortless.
Doesn't this 2-phase compiling remind you of something ? The JVM and JIT (Just in Time Compiler) do the same. The .java source code is compiled by the developer into .class byte code. At runtime, the JVM (acting as a kind of operating system...) who knows the target hardware, finishes the work by transforming the .class bytecode into machine instructions. If the JVM knows the new optimized machine instructions from the last Intel or AMD CPU, then your code will be optimized for these CPUs and run much faster.
Classical programs written in C/C++ for example, must be compiled by the developer to the most common backward compatible machine instruction set to be able to run on any compatible CPU, taking advantage of no new machine instruction.
Who would have ever believed a decade ago that Java would be faster than C ?
AMD and Intel
Still in the JavaOne Pavillon, you could not miss two large booths, these held by AMD and Intel. What the hell do these CPU hardware companies do at JavaOne? While I could understand that Sun promotes some of his servers at JavaOne, I was curious to see how AMD/Intel relates to Java.
They gave me a very reasonable explanation: over the years CPU companies have significantly improved their CPU capabilities; still few software companies take advantage of it. In order to make their improvements used and their live more meaningful, they help the software side.
It reminds me of my IBM years, while studying the AS/400-iSeries systems. They have a microkernel concept which is a software view of a CPU. The source code is compiled to executable microkernel instruction set. When the executable program is copied/installed on a specific hardware, the OS who knows the exact CPU, finishes the compilation process starting from the microkernel instructions to the CPU related machine code. Thank to this system, IBM could migrate customers from CICS processors to RISC processors effortless.
Doesn't this 2-phase compiling remind you of something ? The JVM and JIT (Just in Time Compiler) do the same. The .java source code is compiled by the developer into .class byte code. At runtime, the JVM (acting as a kind of operating system...) who knows the target hardware, finishes the work by transforming the .class bytecode into machine instructions. If the JVM knows the new optimized machine instructions from the last Intel or AMD CPU, then your code will be optimized for these CPUs and run much faster.
Classical programs written in C/C++ for example, must be compiled by the developer to the most common backward compatible machine instruction set to be able to run on any compatible CPU, taking advantage of no new machine instruction.
Who would have ever believed a decade ago that Java would be faster than C ?
Oracle and BEA
Oracle also had a big booth. In fact, Oracle had two booths. The BEA team had a separate area while BEA has been acquired by Oracle some time ago. I'm curious to see how they will integrate in the future.
Sun Microsystems
Last but not least in this article: Sun! Sun was massively present in the Pavillon, with many little booths. Sun Education booth took most of my attention: you know my passion for learning!
And -- what a great surprize -- I met somebody who is at least as passionate about learning as I am, and who truly understands what's wrong with the way courses and certifications are taken and used by most people. I had a great discussion with Kevin Streater, Customer Learning Manager, Sun Microsystems.
Our discussion turned around how to help students who aim at passing the SCJP . One problem is the size of SCJP which increased over the years and is now v6. It's too much to digest at once, even with one or two intense week of Java course. Smaller exams (such as JavaBlackBelt exams ;-) that break down the big SCJP objective into little steps along a clear learning path would definitely help.
Our discussion turned around how to help students who aim at passing the SCJP . One problem is the size of SCJP which increased over the years and is now v6. It's too much to digest at once, even with one or two intense week of Java course. Smaller exams (such as JavaBlackBelt exams ;-) that break down the big SCJP objective into little steps along a clear learning path would definitely help.
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