Speed

My Java app needed 600-1400 milliseconds to parse an XML file and create some menus based on the contents. That was on an Athlon 600, 384MB RAM, Java 1.4, Win2k.

Now, on the new computer, it takes less than 100 milliseconds. This is an Athlon64 3200+ (2.0 GHz, running in 32-bit mode), 1GB RAM, Java 1.5a, WinXP.

What is the main reason for this sudden surge of speed? Just the RAM and CPU? Or is Java 1.5 so much faster?

The increased CPU speed must be the reason for the drop in processing time. Im not sure if the runtime is reworked with every new jdk release though. From jdk1.3 to jdk1.5 the API has almost doubled in size. Now my O'Reilly Java in a Nutshell books can be used as doorstops. :lol:

Why are you running in 32 bit mode though. I thought that you could run a processor in 64 bit mode and still run 32bit apps. :confused:

WinXP64 for Athlon is not out yet.

is the XML parser hand-coded, or is there one in the API? (I don't know the java api at all well). Either way, that A64 has faster and probably bigger(?) cache than the old athlon, plus the ram fetches will be faster - since the task is basically cpu-bound, it's not all that suprising.

Btw, does Java 1.5 have atomic ops?

I think it uses the Xerces2 XML parser. Hmm, I think there was a change there...