Introducing CACAO, a Java Virtual Machine [LWN.net]

CACAO is an open-source Java Virtual Machine that runs on a wide variety of processors on several Unix platforms, including Linux. CACAO is being worked on by this group of developers.

CACAO is a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which uses Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation to execute Java methods natively. Since release 0.93 a Vmgen based interpreter is also integrated. CACAO uses GNU Classpath as default Java core library. The CACAO project started as a research JVM to explore new implementation techniques. The first version for the Alpha was released in February 1997 as a binary. In 2004, CACAO was released under the GPL and is currently actively developed.

The CACAO Wiki site lists some of CACAO's primary features and includes other documentation as well as project discussions.

Version 0.98 of CACAO, named Free all JITs!, has been announced. This is a major feature enhancement and bug-fix release." New features in this release include:

New open-source ARM and MIPS32 code generators.
A new PowerPC64 code generator.
Support for Sun's phoneMe CLDC-1.1 classes in the core library.
A rewrite of the exception throwing code.
A rewrite of the lock-record code.
Improvements to the Threads code and Exception code.
A new Class/Method/Field getSignature implementation.
Miscellaneous bug fixes.

The CACAO source code is available for download here. See the installation instructions and FAQ document for build information.

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