Apple announced in May that it has licensed Natural Intelligence Inc.'s Java Virtual Machine and just-in-time compiler to use as the basis for its implementation of Java in the Mac OS.
Larry Tesler, Apple vice president of Internet platforms, said the company will build a new, hybrid version of Java by combining Natural Intelligence's Virtual Machine, or VM, with Mac code from Sun Microsystems Inc.
"We'll take code from both places and create the best -- the fastest -- implementation of Java on any platform," he said.
Tesler added that Apple is committed to delivering the integrated VM to users this year, most likely in the interim system software update code-named Harmony.
The Java VM is a runtime interpreter needed to execute Java code on a given platform; Java-enabled programs and applets execute within the VM.
Normally a vendor must license and ship a VM with any Java product. If it is built into the operating system, vendors can assume the VM's presence, which will ensure that the Macintosh can execute their applets. A Macintosh just-in-time compiler makes the interpreted Java code run faster by converting it into machine code immediately prior to execution.
Apple licensed the Java source code from Mountain View, Calif.-based Sun in April. Natural Intelligence of Cambridge, Mass., is not a Sun licensee; its Java tools are based on its own in-house implementation of Sun's language specification.
Tesler said the primary reasons for choosing Natural Intelligence were time-to-market concerns and end-user performance.
"We focused on the question of `How do you do a very good implementation of Java?' " Tesler said. "We've licensed the stuff from Sun, but the Natural Intelligence guys know the Mac; they've done the work."
Hillel Cooperman, director of marketing for Natural Intelligence, said Apple expressed an appropriate urgency for delivering Java to Mac users. "They want to get this out as soon as possible," he said. "It's on a very aggressive schedule."
