BEA advancing high-performance apps platform

BEA Systems on Monday is launching an upgrade to its high-performance application platform, WebLogic Real Time Core Edition 1.1, featuring lower latency and runtime analysis. The product includes the WebLogic Express 9.2 application server and adds the JRockit Runtime Analyzer tool, providing detailed information on the Java virtual machine and the application that is running. The tool detects memory leaks.

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Maximum response times have been improved to 30 milliseconds in Version 1.1, from 100 milliseconds in the previous version, said Jim Sherburne, director of product marketing for the Real Time product at BEA. Calling the software the industry's only Java-based runtime, BEA says the product provides fast, predictable response times and leverages Java infrastructure. It also enables users to focus on business functionality; not on maintaining C or C++ code, which have been commonly used in high-performance applications.

An augmented version of the JRockit JVM is included in the package, featuring deterministic garbage collection to define pauses for memory recovery in service-level agreements. This prevents pauses that could last an unacceptably long time and impact application performance, Sherburne said.

The Real Time software is intended for users in areas such as financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications and government who want to take advantage of Java infrastructure, Sherburne said. "They have not been able to do it because of low-latency requirements. Now, they can do it," he said.

Real Time Core Edition 1.1 could provide BEA with a lucrative, high-end niche market, said analyst Shawn Willett, of Current Analysis, in an e-mail. But the company is competing with the open source world, where users could modify source code and conceivably put deterministic SLAs into applications more easily, he said.

"This is a product for very high-end applications that need quick guaranteed transactions. The new version lowers the threshold to 30 milliseconds. If that can be guaranteed you've got a pretty good platform for heavy-duty applications in financial services, military, etc.," Willett said.

First released in December 2005, the Real Time product has an installed base of only a handful of customers now in production but more than 50 additional customers are in the pipeline, according to BEA. The company sees the product competing with the Tibco Rendezvous real-time messaging product. BEA believes it offers an advantage over Tibco in that customers have more control over applications.

BEA WebLogic Real Time Core Edition 1.1 ships on Monday; the company declined to provide specific pricing details.