Re:The strange case of virtual machines on telephones
by ithkuil on Friday August 27, 2010 @08:33AM
(#1638604)
dalvik is different.
for example dalvik bytecode can be adapted to match host endianness after being installed
Running JVM bytecode which is designed to be big-endian (sparc was big-endian) requires some adaptation when executed (especially when constants are loaded from the constants pool) on little endian machines (x84), it seems that the JIT compiler takes care of it. However I don't know how much does this inpact on the JIT compilation speed.
furthermore dalvik wasn't even a jit until android 2.2.
I assume that this startup latency issue was taken into heavy consideration when designing the dalvik JIT, can anyone point to any resources about this?
Given that many phone apps are going to be started, looked at and shut down within a few seconds I don't think the comment is completely out of line.