News

Azul Releases Solution for Low-Latency Java

• By John K. Waters
• September 10, 2013

Java runtime maker Azul Systemsunveiled a new solution for developers of highly-tuned, low-latency Java applications this week. Based on its Zing Java Virtual Machine (JVM), the solution combines the Zing Low-Latency Quick Start Service with the company's Zing subscriptions with premium support.

The problem the company is addressing is not a new one, but the latency-sensitive environments in which Java is used today range from high-frequency electronic trading to social gaming, the company says: "In many cases Java meets these demands, but intermittent Java-based performance stalls, glitches, and pauses -- even at millisecond and below levels -- can pose a risk to real-time business operations, impacting revenue, customer loyalty and developer productivity."

Zing itself is a 100 percent Java-compatible JVM based on Oracle's HotSpot JVM, a core component of Java SE. It's a "no-pause" JVM designed to eliminate Garbage Collection (GC) pauses, a long-standing challenge for Java developers. This pauselessness enables Java app instances to scale dynamically and reliably.

Zing's ability to provide pauseless execution is its key capability, Azul CEO Scott Sellers told ADTmag in an earlier interview. Azul has long targeted GC, which he called the Achilles heel of Java. Mitigating the impact of GC is a long-standing challenge for Java developers; GC pauses limit scalability. Zing enables Java app instances to scale dynamically and reliably to dozens of CPU cores and hundreds of gigabytes of memory. Azul calls this "generational pauseless garbage collection" (GPGC).

The company made its flagship offering available to open source developers last year for use in development, qualification and testing. The Zing JVM is optimized for Linux and x86-based servers, and the company bills it as the most scalable JVM for enterprise Java workloads. Zing can support very high memory allocation rates, and the company also claims that it's the only JVM that supports application instances exceeding 512 gigabytes of memory with pauseless operation. 

The new Quick Start Service, which is delivered by a services team, aims to optimize both new and existing low-latency Java apps requiring peak latency outliers of single-digit milliseconds and below, according to the company. The company says the service is implemented "in close partnership with developers, architects, test, operations and QA teams."

More information about the new Quick Start Service is available here.