Impressed

[Paulo Pinto]

On Saturday, 28 July 2012 at 08:26:45 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Jul 2012 09:53:27 +0200
> "Stuart" <stugol at gmx.com> wrote:
>
>> On Saturday, 28 July 2012 at 02:38:47 UTC, Jonathan M Davis 
>> wrote:
>> > On Saturday, July 28, 2012 04:31:40 Alex Rønne Petersen 
>> > wrote:
>> >> But note, even then, that D only targets 32-bit 
>> >> architectures
>> >> and up, while C can handle 16-bit architectures.
>> >
>> > True, but I'm kind of shocked that anything 16-bit even 
>> > still exists. _32-bit_
>> > is on its way out. I thought that 16-bit was dead _years_ 
>> > ago. I guess that
>> > some embedded stuff must use it. But really, I wouldn't 
>> > expect the lack of 16-
>> > bit support to be much of an impediment - if any at all - 
>> > and in the long run,
>> > it'll mean absolutely nothing.
>> 
>> Embedded systems mostly use Java now in any case, as I 
>> understand
>> it.
>
> God I hope that's not true. Using a VM on a low-power system is 
> just so
> rediculously *wrong* it should be a crime.

Java != VM

There are quite a few companies selling Java native code compilers
for embedded systems.

For example, the Perc systems from Aonix,
http://www.atego.com/products/aonix-perc/

What I can say it that in telecommunications, many SIM cards are
actually running Java Card inside.

http://java.sun.com/javacard/overview.jsp

I know at least of one mobile operator that uses this in all its
SIM cards, and it is a pretty big operator available across 
Europe.
Due to NDA issues I cannot state the name, but should not be hard 
to guess.

Not really commercial product, but you can also get a Java Spot, 
with the VM almost fully implemented in Java, except for the low 
level hardware access done via native methods.

http://www.sunspotworld.com/

The embedded space is very broad, from the tiny processors which 
you still have to code in pure Assembly while counting valuable 
byte space, to some which are big enough to run Java in all 
flavours, high speed interpreter, JIT or natively.

It all a matter of cost vs type of product you want to sell.

--
Paulo