CACAO
| Developer(s) | TU Wien |
|---|---|
| Stable release |
1.6.1
/ June 28, 2013 |
| Repository |
bitbucket |
| Written in | C++ and Java |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Java Virtual Machine |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | http://www.cacaojvm.org |
CACAO is a research Java Virtual Machine developed at TU Wien. It compiles the class binaries while running (no interpreter), resulting in faster execution. It is an academic project, originally developed by students doing practical training or diploma theses on specific topics.
The first version of CACAO was released at 1997 as a faster replacement for Sun's implementation of the Java Virtual Machine, which at that time only had an interpreter. Current Sun virtual machines also use just-in-time compiling.
CACAO gained traction after becoming a free software project in 2004, distributed under the term of the GNU General Public License. It uses GNU Classpath as its class library.
CACAO supports Alpha, ARM, MIPS (32 and 64-bit), PowerPC (32 and 64-bit), S390, SPARC64, x86 and x86-64 architectures.
With 1.6.0 release large parts of the C code were rewritten in C++. The migration was completed with the 1.6.1 release in June 2013.