Jikes RVM - Open Source VM from the Jalapeno Project

IBM Releases Open Source Research Software That Provides Testbed
                                                    for New Virtual Machine Technologies


Jikes Research Virtual Machine Developed in Jalapeņo Project at IBM
Research


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).


IBM Research


IBM Research, with almost 3,000 researchers worldwide, operates
facilities in eight locations around the globe, including Yorktown
Heights, N.Y., San Jose, Calif., Ruschlikon, Switzerland, Yamato, Japan,
Haifa, Israel, Beijing, China, Austin, Texas and Delhi, India. Major
areas of research include computer systems, computer applications and
solutions, systems technology, physical sciences, mathematical sciences,
storage and communications. More details about the technological
achievements of IBM Research scientists can be found at:
www.ibm.com/research.
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 ibm.com/developerWorks
for more information.

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