Basic HTML version of Foils prepared 7 Sept 1997

Foil 47 Java Features -- It's Architecture-Neutral

From Introduction to Java to be used in (Scientific) Computing Basic Simulation Track for Computational Science CPS615 -- Fall Semester 97. by Geoffrey C. Fox, Nancy McCracken


1 C/C++ programming in a heterogeneous network environment requires use and compatibility across several vendor platforms and the corresponding compilers. This problem is solved in Java by designing platform-independent binary representation called Java bytecode (or javaVM).
  • Makes it a lot easier to distribute your code to your colleagues
2 Some concerns that Java requires same results on all platforms and so leads to inefficient execution
3 So have architecture neutral version with same answer on all platforms in applet mode
4 Run optimizing compiler giving directly native machine code with architecture dependent answers (e.g. Pentium calculates floating internally to 80 bit precision -- not 64 as Java requires!) and high performance

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