Azul Systems has added support for Ubuntu Linux to its release of the Zing 5.2 Java-compatible native Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Optimized for continuous low-latency operations across very large numbers of CPU cores and hundreds of gigabytes of memory, Zing makes use of Azul's Continuously Concurrent Compacting Collector (C4) technology, implementing a "pauseless" garbage collection algorithm.

The promise for enterprise developers here is an opportunity to create in-memory applications without risking what Azul describes as "the problematic performance artifacts" caused by traditional Java garbage collectors.

Zing 5.2 introduces performance and latency reduction improvements, which its makers claim enable performance gains for individual application threads of up to 50% — it also achieves garbage collection worst-case latencies as low as 80 usec for tuned applications. Plus, JVM startup time has also been improved by at least 10 percent for typical applications.

"Zing 5.2 also includes Zing Vision, a powerful and zero-overhead production-time application monitoring and diagnostics tool. Zing Vision enables developers, operations, and support teams to see what a Java application and JVM is doing — during operation — at very high levels of granularity. Unlike other Java-monitoring solutions, Zing Vision runs inside the JVM, allowing always-on high precision application monitoring without any performance degradation", said Scott Sellers, Azul Systems president and CEO.

"We have seen strong demand from enterprises who want to run Zing on the expanding number of Ubuntu deployments. Ubuntu is now a great choice for developers and operators who need Zing's market-leading predictable, low-latency performance, and monitoring for their Java applications," added Sellers.