BEA Systems Inc. has released an upgrade to its JRockit Java virtual machine for servers based on Intel processors. BEA acquired JRockit early last year from Sweden’s Appeal Virtual Machines AB and has worked closely with Intel Corp. to improve the product for servers based on Intel chips. Most of BEA’s customers run its WebLogic Java application server on Unix systems from Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., but sales on Intel-based systems represent the fastest-growing part of its business.
The main enhancements in the new release of JRockit, Version 8.0, are in performance. BEA says it improved the profiling and debugging interfaces in JRockit to help customers write faster applications, and to find and fix performance bugs. Version 8.0 is available for download for 32-bit Windows and Linux systems.
Sun trumpets royalty-free Web services specs
Royalty-free industry specifications are needed to enable Web services to fulfil its potential as a mechanism for business process integration on a massive scale, Sun Microsystems Inc. officials stressed during a Sun “Chalk Talk” session held recently in San Francisco.
Any requirement that specific vendors be paid royalties for use of their technologies in standardized Web services specifications could stifle the growth of Web services, said Mark Bauhaus, Sun vice-president of Java Web services. Sun wants its royalty-free position to be accepted by other members of the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) and is running for election to a seat on the WS-I governing board in March.
