The Java EE 6 Tutorial, Volume I

NotSupported Attribute

If the client is running within a transaction and invokes the enterprise bean’s method, the container suspends the client’s transaction before invoking the method. After the method has completed, the container resumes the client’s transaction.

If the client is not associated with a transaction, the container does not start a new transaction before running the method.

Use the NotSupported attribute for methods that don’t need transactions. Because transactions involve overhead, this attribute may improve performance.