AArch64 port first release

[Volker Simonis]

Hi Andrew, Henrik,

congratulations! This is really good news.

I just got really puzzeled when I read the recent Oracle/ARM announcement:

"ARM AND ORACLE ANNOUNCE PLANS TO OPTIMIZE JAVA SE FOR ENTERPRISE AND
EMBEDDED MARKETS"
(http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/arm-and-oracle-announce-plans-to-optimize-java-se-for-enterprise-and-embedded-markets.php)

They announced that "ARM ... has entered into a multi-year agreement
with Oracle to further optimize the existing Java Platform, Standard
Edition (Java SE) for ARM® 32-bit platforms and to add Java SE support
for ARMv8 64-bit  platforms."

How does this agreement affects the AArch64 OpenJDK port?

Henrik, I think it would be really sad if Oracle would start a
competing, closed ARMv8 64-bit port on their own. Or are there any
plans to merge the porting efforts in the OpenJDK? At least in the ARM
announcement the word OpenJDK (or even 'open' :) isn't mentioned with
a single word!

Thank you and best regards,
Volker


On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 4:25 PM, Andrew Haley <aph at redhat.com> wrote:
> I'm pleased to announce our first release of Java for the ARMv8
> 64-bit architecture.  This is a whole new port, completely
> unrelated to to the 32-bit ARM JDK.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AArch64#ARMv8_and_64-bit
>
>
> Project status:
>
> This port is still very much a work in progress, but it passes
> its tests and it's good enough to run most Java programs.
>
> It is not complete.  We're missing support for optional features
> such as biased locking and JVMTI.  Also, it's rather scrappy in
> some places and the code could be more efficient and more
> idiomatic in many other places.  Patches welcome!
>
> The template interpreter and the C1 compiler are done.  The C2
> compiler is still at a rather early stage.
>
> You don't need an ARMv8 to test and run the port.  We've written a
> small simulator that links into the JVM, so you can run this port just
> like native Java on any 64-bit x86 GNU/Linux system.  We also provide
> advanced debugging capabilities via a set of GDB extensions.  This
> provides the best interactive debugging environment that I have ever
> seen for a Java VM.  You also can run on ARM's Fast Model if you
> prefer.
>
> We've provided full build instructions, but we'll help you if you get
> stuck.  We want people to try it out.
>
> I feel that I have to end with an apology.  When I started this port I
> wanted it to be an exemplary free software project: open discussion,
> open development, and the free exchange of ideas.  It hasn't worked
> out that way.  We needed very detailed technical information about the
> ARMv8 architecture long before it was made public, and ARM were kind
> enough to give us what we needed.  However, there was a caveat: we
> couldn't make it public.  So, we've been in stealth mode until a few
> weeks ago.  My thanks go out to the legal teams who worked hard to
> make this release possible.
>
> Also, a big shout to Mark Reinhold for sorting out all the crazy
> problems we had with OpenJDK's source code repository.
>
>
> http://hg.openjdk.java.net/aarch64-port/jdk8/raw-file/tip/README.aarch64
>
> Web: http://openjdk.java.net/projects/aarch64-port/
>
> Mailing list: http://mail.openjdk.java.net/mailman/listinfo/aarch64-port-dev
>
>
> Andrew.