iPhone's CPU includes native Java support
updated 09:20 am EDT, Mon July 9, 2007
iPhone CPU Java Support
The ARM processor found inside the iPhone includes special features for accelerating Java code, a study of the chip reveals. The chip is likely to be the Samsung-made S3C6400 and therefore supports the Jazelle engine, which reduces memory use to a fraction of what would be needed for software and uses a virtual engine that juggles multiple Java programs at once without a major drop in performance. Phones can use this to easily load chat and games without requiring more expensive hardware, the ARM group says.
The discovery appears to contradict Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' claims that a full Java engine is a "heavyweight ball and chain" for devices such as the iPhone, calling it an obsolete technology. The company has previously asked developers to focus instead on web code alone for third-party applications, writing programs using Javascript (which is largely unrelated to Java) and other technologies connected to the AJAX web platform. Some, though not all, mainstream phones and smartphones regularly use Java to extend their features without requiring hardware-specific code.
SteveJobs= controlfreak
07/09, 09:29am reply
Fact is, Java is used. I use it on my fav. website for chatting. iPhone is going to shut me out on that one...thanks Steve Jobs.
Jonathan-Tanya
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 2004
contradictory?
07/09, 10:24am reply
he derides the standard implementation then includes a lighter weight one - so maybe he's simply leaving options open. besides cingular / att has traditionally crippled java on their phones - for no apparent good reason and annoyingly so - constant approval reqs, and salling simply won't run thanks to their custom behaviour.
jpellino
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Oct 1999
Re: contradictory
07/09, 11:30am reply
he derides the standard implementation then includes a lighter weight one - so maybe he's simply leaving options open.
I wouldn't call it contradictory. The iPod has used a processor that can natively decode WMA files. Yet its never been enabled. I don't think they included the chip because of its Java capabilities, it just happens to have them.
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
sigh..
07/10, 02:27am reply
Just because the hardware supports it, does not imply that the software *must* support it. Steve doesn't like Java, and if he said that they don't support JAVA, that ought to be good enough.
Most anything that can be done, on the web, badly with JAVA, can be done much better, and with less overhead, with Ajax, PHP, etc...
ZinkDifferent
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Joined: Jan 2005