Performance and Scalability Improvements for Java Platform

In the Solaris Express 8/04 release, J2SE 5 offers enhanced performance and scalability for developers who use the Java platform.

Automatic Tuning for Large Server Machines

Machines with more than 2 Gbytes of main memory and more than 2 processors automatically select an enhanced server performance mode. This mode delivers significant performance, especially for J2EE^TM based application servers. This enhanced performance mode uses the “hotspot” server compiler with a parallel “garbage collector,” and with appropriately tuned initial and maximum memory sizes.

For further information, see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/vm/gc-ergonomics.html.

Reduced Startup Time

Desktop applications benefit from the addition of class data sharing. During installation, this feature creates a special preprocessed archive of commonly used Java classes. This same archive is loaded when the JVM starts, thus reducing the processing time. This archive is also available to subsequent Java applications on that same machine.

OpenGL Hardware Acceleration

The JVM can accelerate JFC/Swing and Java 2D applications if an OpenGL device is available. This acceleration is automatic but disabled by default. This acceleration improves the runtime performance of many graphic-intensive programs.