An airhacks.fm conversation with Gil Tene (@giltene) about:

discussion of Azul Systems' Vega chip,

a custom-designed processor optimized for Java workloads,

Vega's architecture and features including multiple generations (Vega 1, 2, and 3),

high core count (up to 54 cores per chip),

custom instruction set,

hardware-managed register windows,

type-aware pointers for efficient method calls,

fully symmetric multiprocessing with up to 16 chips (864 cores total),

memory striping across controllers for even distribution,

Hardware Transactional Memory support for concurrent Java operations,

custom coherency and memory ordering instructions,

comparison with contemporary processors from Intel and Sun,

challenges in chip design and manufacturing, impact on Java performance and concurrency,

evolution of the technology and its influence on modern processor designs,

Gil Tene's role in developing the Vega chip and related software technologies at Azul Systems,

Gil's blog: Stuff Gil Says