TheRaven64's Journal: X-Scale Java

El Reg is running another article about Java on the X-Scale talking about the close collaboration between Sun and Intel resulting in a version of Java tightly coupled to the hardware.

As I recall, the X-Scale is a re-branded version of ARM's StrongARM chip (ARM, like MIPS, don't make chips anymore, just IP cores). One of the key features of the ARM chip design is its modularity, you can pop in an FPU or vector unit if you need one with minimal effort. Now does anyone remember a few years ago that ARM released a core thar could run Java bytecode natively (faster, in fact that Sun's attempt)? Surely adding this to the mix on the X-Scale would be easier than optimising Java for the X-Scale's native instruction set? It would eliminate the need for a JIT compiler, and potentially use less power (important on a portable) to run at a decent speed.