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Yorktown Heights, NY, Oct. 15, 2001 -- Today IBM Research released the Jikes* Research Virtual Machine (RVM) under the open-source Common Public License. The Jikes RVM, available now through developerWorks (www.ibm.com/developerworks), was designed to execute Java*** programs that are typically used in research on fundamental virtual machine design issues. It will provide academic and research communities with a flexible testbed to prototype new virtual machine technologies and experiment with a large variety of design alternatives.
The Jikes RVM runs on AIX*/PowerPC*, Linux**/PowerPC and Linux/IA-32 platforms and includes state-of-the-art virtual machine technologies for dynamic compilation, adaptive optimization, garbage collection, thread scheduling and synchronization. A unique characteristic of the Jikes RVM is that it is implemented in the Java programming language and is self-hosted i.e., its Java code runs on itself without requiring a second virtual machine. In contrast, other virtual machines for the Java platform are either written in native code (typically, C or C++) or written in the Java programming language with a reliance on a second underlying virtual machine to execute its Java code. A Java implementation provides ease of portability, and a seamless integration of virtual machine and application resources such as objects, threads, and operating-system interfaces.
The virtual machine infrastructure in the Jikes RVM release was independently developed during the last four years as part of the Jalapeņo research project at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. Early versions of the Jikes RVM have been made available to 16 universities under a pre-release license. Researchers at these universities have found that the Jikes RVM provides an ideal vehicle for research on the frontiers of virtual machine technologies. With the availability of source code for Linux, the Linux ports of the Jikes RVM can be used for experimenting with a larger testbed that includes both the operating system and the virtual machine.
"The Jikes RVM infrastructure should be of interest to anyone doing research or teaching courses on the design and implementation of modern programming languages. I wish this kind of testbed had been available when I was in graduate school," said Vivek Sarkar, senior manager of Programming Technologies at IBM Research.
The Jikes RVM is available for download immediately from the Open Source Zone on developerWorks (www.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/jikesrvm).
It includes a GUI plugin for running Jikes RVM under IBM's Eclipse tool integration platform (www.eclipse.org/). The Jikes RVM follows other Java technology releases from IBM Research, including the Jikes compiler available on developerWorks (www.ibm.com/developerworks/oss/jikes), and the Jikes Parser Generator and Jikes Bytecode Toolkit available on alphaWorks (www.ibm.com/alphaworks).
About developerWorks
developerWorks is IBM's developer resource for open, standards-based development. Committed to providing relevant and accurate technical information by tapping into IBM and other industry leaders, developerWorks content is valuable to developers regardless of their application development tool of choice. developerWorks offers technology and product resources related to Linux, XML, Java, Web services, emerging technologies and more. Visit www.ibm.com/developerWorks for more information.
* Indicates a trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
** Linux is a trademark or registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
***Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
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