From Online Reporter, a new sister publication
Asymetrix Corporation is the latest entry in the wide-open Java tool field with a C++-performance-level interactive development environment it says will shake up the early frontrunners, Borland and Symantec. The SuperCede tool set, comprised of a virtual machine and an interactive development environment, is powered by the Flash Compiler, a device that Asymetrix claims runs Java code five times faster than the fastest JIT compiler and 50 times faster than interpreted Java code. Flash Compiler, the brainchild of engineers recruited from NT father Dave Cutler’s team at DEC, was developed in a three-year secret project for C++ and can now compile both Java and C++. SuperCede product manager Peter Kellogg-Smith claims it’s not a JIT compiler, and compiles all code at machine level where JITs use a hybrid approach. Asymetrix is poised at the confluence of the two Internet movements, the Microsoft and Sun camps. It’s one of those rarest of birds, a profitable Paul Allen company, and after living up to its name for years with unfocused efforts that included developing screen savers, it was set on the Internet development tools path by a new management team headed by CEO Jim Billmaier, former VP and general manager of Sun’s Network Products Division. The SuperCede virtual machine is in beta as a Netscape plug-in, with release July 22 as an OEM product, the only way the company figures it’ll make money on it. The IDE will beta in July with release in October. Meanwhile, we couldn’t help but notice how many Sun personnel – including CEO Scott McNealy – were clustering around the Asymetrix booth at JavaOne watching SuperCede demos. And we don’t think it’s just because they’re all old friends.
