Tool brews up analysis on Java compilers

-- EDN, 1/6/2000

High-level-language compilers have become one of the most important pieces of a design involving a CPU. This situation is true even at the low end of the spectrum with 8-bit microcontrollers (see "C for yourself: programming 8-bitters" in this issue). Conventional compiler-validation suites fail to test or identify many compiler features. Even the application-oriented, "out-of-the-box" benchmarks from EEMBC (www.eembc.org) do not specifically test compiler features, such as block merging, constant folding, constant propagation, and hoisting. If you're directly involved with compiler technology or are just serious about the capabilities you are selecting for your next design, you're probably familiar with Nullstone's automated compiler-performance analysis. For the last 10 years, Nullstone has offered a C-compiler suite and has now expanded its product offering to include support for Java.

Although the Java and C suites are similar in many respects, some obvious differences exist. Similar to the C suite, the Java suite consists of approximately 6000 performance tests that represent more than 20 features. Both suites generate reports that clearly identify failures. Both support native and embedded development environments. They also isolate interpreter/compiler performance from system performance and support architecture-independent operation for cross-architecture comparison.

Nullstone's Java suite measures the interpreted, just-in-time, and native-compiled performance of the Java compiler. It also performs tests associated with garbage collection. Although Java hasn't reached prime time yet, many C programmers would like to use a more expressive language, but C++ is too complex and cumbersome. So you can expect Java to become more pervasive in the next three to five years, even in the embedded market. In the meantime, many vendors are interested in Nullstone's Java performance-analysis tool, which has a price tag of $20,000 for a site license. The tool runs on all popular platforms, including DOS, NT, 98, Linux, Unix, and MacOS.

Nullstone Corp, 1-925-461-5990, www.nullstone.com.

—by Markus Levy