Translation to MIPS Code

This JDK release includes support for translating Java bytecode to MIPS machine code and running it instead of the bytecode in order to improve Java runtime performance.

java, the Java virtual machine, is able to translate the code for each class when it is loaded, and then subsequently to use the MIPS code. This is called JIT (Just In Time) compilation. It is turned on and off by the -jit and -nojit options, and is on by default.

In previous releases, MIPS code could be generated ahead of time using the tool javat, in order to avoid doing this translation every time a program was run. Due to the speed of our JIT compiler, and particularly now because translation is done at a method (rather than class) granularity, this capability is not generally beneficial, so it is no longer provided.

MIPS code execution is not available:

• on systems with R4000 processors, revisions 3.0 and earlier
• when a program is being debugged

Also, the -prof option to java does not work properly in the presence of MIPS code execution. If you use the -prof option, use the -nojit option also.

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