It's disconcerting that they need to mention "512GB", as if they found that "pauseless garbage collection was" not a big enough selling point (perhaps because for most server applications - where the big money Java apps are - individual responsiveness doesn't matter all that much).
It's also disconcerting, because (it seems to me) that big apps are increasingly a thing of the past, as we move to massively distributed smaller, slower processes - each individual JVM with its own smaller memory needs. Big apps seem to be an upmarket niche, disappearing fast.
Whereas the great strength of pauseless gc is in realtime client-side apps - like mobile devices.
I think these guys have done something great here, and it would be a shame to see them pushed upmarket into oblivion, when they could create an entirely new disruption based on Java - perhaps (finally) fulfilling its promise... (and for the java-haters, also for other JVM-based languages).
So in theory you are correct, but the reality on the ground is that 96gb in a box is getting to be pretty standard now.
Also the other thing to remember is that the standard java GCs dont reliably work under all workloads above 2-4GB. You can make a 8gb or 16gb heap work, but if you hit a full-compaction your JVM will go MIA for MINUTES at a time. So you can't even scale to a 16gb ram heap.
The 512GB is for the previous customers who do in fact use heaps of that size.
Thanks, I guess needing over 2-4GB is not terribly high-end; and even if I'm right about disruption, demand will keep creeping up over time at both high and low end. Even phones have 1GB these days.
It's disconcerting that they need to mention "512GB", as if they found that "pauseless garbage collection was" not a big enough selling point (perhaps because for most server applications - where the big money Java apps are - individual responsiveness doesn't matter all that much).
It's also disconcerting, because (it seems to me) that big apps are increasingly a thing of the past, as we move to massively distributed smaller, slower processes - each individual JVM with its own smaller memory needs. Big apps seem to be an upmarket niche, disappearing fast. Whereas the great strength of pauseless gc is in realtime client-side apps - like mobile devices.
I think these guys have done something great here, and it would be a shame to see them pushed upmarket into oblivion, when they could create an entirely new disruption based on Java - perhaps (finally) fulfilling its promise... (and for the java-haters, also for other JVM-based languages).
EDIT Azul tech previously on HN (links include explanations IIRC): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=810506 --- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2022723 --- http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2058476