Java Performance for DAQ

J ava i s a key t ec hnology for t he next gene ra ti on of dat a ac qui s it i on s ys t em s (DAQ ). J ava has excellent features, but its performance is a weak point. We evaluated various Java benchmark progr am s wi t h a J ava i nt erpr et er , J ava J us t -I n-Ti m e com pi l er s (J I T), a J ava nat i ve code compiler (TowerJ) which generates native code, and a C compiler. The benchmark programs i ncl ude hi gh per form a nce com put at i on, i nt erproce s s com m uni ca ti on, t hre ad s wi t chi ng, fi l e I/ O, re adout (V ME bus and C AM AC ), di s tr i bute d obj ec t t ec hnologi e s (H ORB et c .), obj ec t ori e nte d dat a bas e ac ce s s and s o on. The benc hm ark progr am s s howe d t he fol l owi ng: HOR B had t he bes t per form a nce am ong t he di s tr i bute d obj ec t t ec hnologi e s , Towe rJ had good performance, the JITs were fast in some cases, and readout with the Java language was useful enough. The fe as i bi li t y of J ava -ba se d DAQ has bee n di s cus s ed fr om t he poi nt of vi ew of performance.