The Moxie JVM Project

Goal: 

The Moxie project will create an open source platform for developing product-quality JVMs and an environment for JVM innovation.  Our goal is to build the most innovation-friendly JVM development platform to date and from it, the most innovative product-quality JVMs.  A product-quality JVM has outstanding performance, scalability and reliability.  The development philosophy of Moxie is to leverage its openness to draw on the most experienced members of the VM research and development community, from both industry and academia.

More on the Moxie goals here...

Status:

1. Prototype.  A prototype JVM is currently under development.  The prototype should be made available early in the second quater of 2006 under the Apache license.  The goal of this first prototype is not to explore performance issues, but to explore proof-of-concept ideas which have not previously been implemented in mainstream JVMs.  These ideas are driven by the brainstorming work of the the "think tank" (below).
2. Brainstorming design and implementation ideas.  A group of people from industry and academia have met twice to brainstorm ideas for a next generation JVM. (Note that we used the place-holder name "NGVM")
• San Francisco, December 6, 2005
• Summary
• Notes 
• Goals
• Albuquerque, January 11, 2006
• Notes
• Presentations
• Intro/overview slides
• Cliff Click (Azul)
• Dave Grove (IBM Research)
• Jan Vitek (Purdue)
• Marcus Lagergren (BEA)

Mailing List:

There is not yet a general-discussion mailing list for Moxie, but if there is sufficient demand, I will create one.  There is a mailing list for the core participants and its archives are public.

Harmony:

"What is the relationship between Moxie and Apache Harmony?".  Good question! The goal of the Moxie project is to explore new ideas for JVM design and implementation and to apply them to a product quality Apache licensed JVM.  This is entirely consistent with the Harmony project's goals and our hope is that Moxie will become part of the Harmony project.  For now we're focused on exploring and prototyping new ideas, so we're a fair way away from the pragmatics of producing a JVM for the end user, which is the current focus at Harmony.

Name:

The name "Moxie" was chosen by a vote. One definition of "moxie"..

1. The ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage.
2. Aggressive energy; initiative: “His prose has moxie, though it rushes and stumbles from a pent-up surge” (Patricia Hampl).
3. Skill; know-how.
4. 
   

The project initially went by the very unimaginative place-holder name, "NGVM"