Technology1 min read

Embedded Java: 20x Smaller Than Chrome, Faster Than Rust, Royalty Free

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In short

The framework provides dedicated deployment modes for both graphical hardware and headless connected machinery. For interactive displays like point-of-sale systems, an integrated software renderer writes directly to the Linux frame buffer or DRM/KMS, sidestepping windowing servers entirely. Internal benchmarking showed this display stack operating in only 18 megabytes of memory for an animated gauge, while its headless runtime handled 379,900 requests per second across two processor cores.

Key points

  • Developers can deploy across embedded devices, companion applications, and back-office to…: Developers can deploy across embedded devices, companion applications, and back-office tools using a single royalty-free Java or Kotlin codebase.
  • The runtime automatically uses hardware acceleration when a functioning GPU is detected b…: The runtime automatically uses hardware acceleration when a functioning GPU is detected but operates smoothly without one.
  • Headless deployments can directly control low-level motors, hardware sensors, and local n…: Headless deployments can directly control low-level motors, hardware sensors, and local networking interfaces on equipment like robot vacuums.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Embedded software has the hardest job description in our industry. It has to run for years without a reboot. It has to fit in whatever RAM and flash the bill of materials allowed, because every chip you add is paid for again on every unit you ship. It has to respond instantly on a CPU slower than a phone from five years ago. And now it also has to look like the phone app, talk to the phone app, and report to a cloud service, because that’s what customers expect from anything with a power cord.

Most teams solve that with three or four stacks. C or C++ on the device for size and control, a browser or Qt for the screen, Swift and Kotlin for the companion app, something else on the server. Every boundary between them is a protocol written twice and a bug waiting to happen.

Codename One now runs on embedded Linux, and it covers every one of those pieces with one Java or Kotlin codebase. On our benchmark, the UI drew an animated gauge in…

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