FW: Java FreeBSD Alpha

[Nate Williams]

>     Casually, i read your message to freeBSD-java, as i am not suscribed 
> to that mailing list (i should be, i know....) I am one of the ones that 
> got Compaq's Java2 for Linux running under FreeBSD-Alpha.
> 
>     First, some caveats.
> 
>     It is slow. Compaq's JIT will not work under FreeBSD, and it seemed 
> to me that the effort needed to make it run was not worth it (see below)

Slow is an understatement.  My 486/66 was about an order of magnitude
faster than the native Compaq JVM on my 500Mhz Alpha Miata.  I
understand that with a decent JIT the same box could run as fast as a
PIII-200. :)

>     Installation is painfull, you'r most likely going to need an Alpha 
> running linux for a while.

Naw, it runs out of the box, no need for Linux. 

>     I'm rather dissapointed on the quality of Compaq's J2SDK for Linux, 
> the memory footprint is LARGE!. Running under native Linux, i was unable 
> to run the VolanoMark Benchmark with the native JIT, even with 1 GB of 
> ram (and it ran painfully slow with the classic VM).

Wow, I'm surprised.  Our application which is *way* bigger than the
Volano stuff didn't use nearly that much memory.  However, it was so
slow that maybe it was because I never really pushed it hard, and
did simple verification tests with it.

>     2.   How to proceed (From my own archives)
>     2.1    You'll probably want to get a newer lesstif ...
>     2.2   I can send you prebuilt libraries to spare yourself step D) if 
> you lack a Linux-Alpha machine (or just for convenience)

I had everything running on the Alpha that was originally provided to
the FreeBSD/Java team for doing the Java port, but due to lack of
interest the box sat completely idle for years and has since been put
out to pasture.

BTW, thanks got to Andrew Gallatin who helped make the Linuxulator
changes so that it would work, albeit slowly.

Contacts at DEC/Compaq were met with interest, but there was little
techical help forthcoming.

IMO, the Alpha platform is dead as far as Java is concerned.  It's a
great architecture, but it's really not worth throwing resources toward
something that will never outperform a PC that you can buy for $300 new.



Nate