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GE introduces Smallworld on Java

By March 25, 2013December 23rd, 2014Smallworld

Companies worldwide are under growing pressure to lower their cost of ownership for IT infrastructure, including geospatial deployment. To address this trend, GE is now enhancing the Smallworld Magik platform to enable full use of the benefits of the Java Virtual Machine and the Java ecosystem.

GE is making a technology shift to its geospatial technology platform to bring the following business benefits to customers:

  • A 3 to 5 time improvement in code performance.
  • Ability to leverage all of the capability of the Java ecosystem.
  • Improved tools to manage and analyse the performance of a deployed system.

Java’s potential in Smallworld Magik

GE is doing this by utilizing the power of the Java Platform to run the Magik environment. In particular, GE is using the new capabilities that Oracle has added to the Java language and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to support languages like Magik. Oracle JVM Architect John Rose pointed out, “When we added new bytecode features to Java SE 7, we were aiming to help implementers of dynamic and domain-specific languages, giving them full access to our deep technology investments in the JDK and JVM. GE’s work with Magik is exactly the type of software engineering we want to enable.”

Taking this approach allows customers to maintain their investment in Smallworld technology while at the same time being able to use the full breadth of the Java ecosystem.