Asymetrix Corp is claiming that so many people have tried to download beta copies of its SuperCede for Java development tool that it has banned its employees from Net surfing while it boosts its T1 line capacity. The Java Virtual Machine inside SuperCede is supposed to run Java 10 times faster than just-in-time compilers and 50 times faster than interpreted code. People apparently ran to its booth at the Software Development East show in Washington DC last week when the betas became available. The launch was held on a Trident-class nuclear submarine off the coast of Washington State last Monday. The gag? It torpedoes the competition. Hyperbole aside, Asymetrix, which was started by Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen and run mostly by ex-Sun Microsystems marketing people, has been causing a bit of a stir with its Java Virtual Machine. The Bellevue, Washington-based company says its implementation is compatible with the official Sun specification, but is much faster. Asymetrix had Sun apparently very interested in the compiling technology at the heart of SuperCede for Java, but it now looks as if Sun will have its own just-in-time compiler next year. Sun also spoke to Symantec Corp about the compiler which Netscape recently took in place of Borland’s offering. But Asymetrix reckons it stands above the lot because it’s a true rapid application development tool, it says. Symantec’s Cafe and Microsoft’s J++ are based on the C++ programming model of compile test, link and run, whereas SuperCede for Java compiles everything at machine level, and tests on the fly. So far NEC Corp and Toshiba Corp have licensed it. More had been promised by now, but none have so far been finalized.
