Java has finally made it into the portable and wireless market due to Sun's Java-2 MicroEdition (J2ME). The traditional approach to execute Java is to implement the entire Java Virtual Machine in software. To meet the performance and power demands of these battery-powered applications, vendors are providing hardware accelerators to more efficiently execute Java byte codes. The Java accelerators range from extensions to the native processor's decoding hardware to standalone coprocessors that run in parallel with a host CPU.

This report focuses on the different categories of hardware-based Java accelerators including ARM's Jazelle, Aurora VLSI's DeCaf, inSilicon's JVXtreme, Nazomi's JSTAR, Parthus Technologies' MachStream, and Zucotto Wireless' Xpresso. These vendors claim that their accelerators produce an average of five to ten times increase over the speed of a software-only approach, but in reality each product has its own set of pros and cons.