Static and Dynamic compilation

While HotSpot will be delayed until the summer, other vendors are testing alternative technologies. A favorite seems to be compilation to a native instruction set, which gives an insight into the speeds that could be obtained. New garbage collection algorithms and a better understanding of memory allocation issues should also help. And while current JIT's deliver lower performance, there are reasons to believe that JIT compilers might eventually become more efficient than native code. However, this does not mean that Java need be the portability solution: Taos is selling a new portable OS, Elate, written in a virtual assembly code based upon a run-time translator.