Accidental Choices—How JVM Choice and Associated Build Tools Affect Interpreter Performance

Considering the large number of optimisation techniques that have been integrated into the design of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) over the last three decades, the Java interpreter continues to persist as a significant bottleneck in the performance of bytecode execution. This paper examines the relationship between Java Runtime Environment (JRE) performance concerning the interpreted execution of Java bytecode and the effect modern compiler selection and integration within the JRE build toolchain has on that performance. We undertook this evaluation relative to a contemporary benchmark suite of application workloads, the Renaissance Benchmark Suite. Our results show that the choice of GNU GCC compiler version used within the JRE build toolchain statistically significantly affects runtime performance. More importantly, not all OpenJDK releases and JRE JVM interpreters are equal. Our results show that OpenJDK JVM interpreter performance is associated with benchmark workload. In addition, in some cases, rolling back to an earlier OpenJDK version and using a more recent GNU GCC compiler within the build toolchain of the JRE can significantly positively impact JRE performance