Mobile devices can thank Java for the popular mobile games, ringtones, and other features that are currently driving the handheld market. As smart phones and personal digital assistants are showing, however, Java also feels at home in the enterprise environment. Clearly, Java's universal nature puts it at the heart of many current and emerging mobile-data services. With help from Sun Microsystems (http://sun.com) and ARM (www.arm.com), Java will soon improve and extend that mobile reach even farther.

Through a long-term collaboration, Sun and ARM want to enhance performance while reducing resource requirements and the cost of deployment. Their plan is to integrate and distribute optimized Java solutions for mobile devices. The companies will then integrate those software and hardware optimizations to improve the end-user mobile experience. Such optimizations will significantly boost the computing power behind mobile Java applications.

Initially, the companies will jointly optimize and integrate the software that enables the ARM Jazelle hardware acceleration technology into Sun's Connected Limited Device Configuration HotSpot Implementation (CLDC HI) Java Virtual Machine. The resulting product is expected to increase application execution speed. Compared to the current version of CLDC HI, it should reduce application startup time by up to 50%. The companies also expect increased efficiency in power and memory consumption. For handset manufacturers and carriers, these enhancements mean reduced costs. Meanwhile, consumers will enjoy a better mobile experience when running video streaming, advanced imaging, and other applications.

To streamline access to this integrated product, the companies will establish one single distribution source through Sun. Sun's CLDC HI customers will be able to integrate, test, and benchmark the integrated product with Jazelle capabilities out of the box. Handset manufacturers and carriers can choose to deploy a software-only solution using just CLDC HI or an integrated solution combining CLDC HI and Jazelle technologies. Sun plans to ship CLDC HI integrated with Jazelle technology-enabling software in the fourth quarter of this year.