Java accelerator picks up speed

Azul System's new server appliance release will boost Java performance, and reduce power demands

Azul Systems will today release new versions of its server appliance, promising to accelerate Java performance by a factor of three compared with its first-generation products, while at the same time reducing power demands.

The California startup has made a splash in datacentres with high-end offload capabilities designed to speed up transaction processing, business intelligence and other tasks requiring very fast responses. Its small-format boxes are dedicated to speeding up Java processing, use the firm’s own Vega microprocessor design and demand no software modifications.

The first-generation chips had 24 cores but the new Vega 2 systems offer 48. Improvements in clock speed, latency elimination, manufacturing process and other factors account for the promised speed increase and a 20 percent smaller power envelope, according to Azul.

Azul will roll out two-socket systems with 96 cores and four-socket machines with 192 cores this week, with eight- and 16-socket systems housing up to 768 cores due next year. The most powerful configurations can tap up to 768GB of RAM.

“The traditional servers can’t deliver large memory-intensive capabilities but we can easily handle them [without large hardware footprint and power demands] and that’s a big, big shift,” said Azul marketing vice-president Ram Appalaraju.

Azul customer BT uses eight top-end Vega appliances for its business-to-business gateway links.

“We were looking at our overall Java performance, and we needed to look at a new approach rather than traditional servers,” said Mark O’Flaherty, BT Exact head of gateway development. “Also, like everybody else we were concerned about cooling and power.”

Azul’s technology is capable of handling any managed runtime environment so Azul could in future support .Net, PHP or Python.