Java-through-C compilation: an enabling technology for Java in embedded systems

The Java programming language is acheiving greater acceptance in high-end embedded systems such as cellphones and PDAs. However, current embedded implementations of Java impose tight constraints on functionality, while requiring significant storage space. In addition, they require that a JVM be ported to each such platform. We demonstrate the first Java-to-C compilation strategy that is suitable for a wide range of embedded systems, thereby enabling broad use of Java on embedded platforms. This strategy removes many of the constraints on functionality and reduces code size without sacrificing performance. The compilation framework described is easily retargetable, and is also applicable to bare-bones embedded systems with no operating system or JVM. On an average, we found the size of the generated executables to be over 25 times smaller than those generated by a cutting-edge Java-to-native-code compiler, while providing performance comparable to the best of various Java implementation strategies.