Liberica JDK Performance Edition from BellSoft for JDK 11

The family of BellSoft’s solutions for Java development was recently replenished with Liberica JDK Performance Edition, which brings the performance of JVM 17 to enterprise workloads based on JDK 11.

When migration from JDK 11 is not an option yet

Together with JDK 8, JDK 11 is the most widely used version in enterprise Java development. Although it is more advanced than JDK 8 thanks to modularity, better container awareness, and other helpful functionality, JDK 11 lacks multiple improvements introduced to Java within the last five years because fewer features are ported to legacy versions with every new release. As such, migration to a more recent version is the only way to increase essential KPIs.  

Unfortunately, not all enterprises are planning migration to a newer LTS version in the nearest future due to specific challenges associated with the process, both technical and strategic.

Technical difficulties in migrating from JDK 11 to the latest LTS release, JDK 17, include

● Removed features, JVM parameters, and APIs that require significant code rewriting,

● Strong encapsulation of JDK internals, which forbids reflective access to internal JDK components even with the --illegal-access option.

From a strategic perspective, IT teams may deal with

● A complex application with numerous dependencies and tools, all of which must be updated to the compatible version,

● Multiple legacy libraries, which can cause code or version compatibility issues after being updated.

As a result, businesses need more time and human resources to complete the migration and miss out on the newest Java features contributing to enhanced JVM performance.

 ​Liberica JDK Performance Edition (a.k.a liberica-perf) is a drop-in replacement for JDK 11. It enables the developers to bring the performance of their application to the level of version 17 without rewriting the application code.  

Liberica JDK Performance Edition delivers JVM 17 to JDK 11

Liberica JDK Performance Edition (a.k.a liberica-perf) is a drop-in replacement for JDK 11. It enables the developers to bring the performance of their application to the level of version 17 without rewriting the application code. Even at default settings, the overall performance — startup, throughput, and latency — will increase by 10–15%. For instance, the mean throughput is 120 % higher, and the G1 evacuation pause is 96.5% shorter.

Further improvements are possible by adjusting the settings, including but not limited to selecting another GC implementation.

Key functionality taken from LTS JDK 17

Most improvements that Liberica JDK Performance Edition brings to JDK 11 are related to enhanced garbage collection.

Garbage collection significantly contributes to application footprint, throughput, and latency. Therefore, the Java community constantly improves the GC implementations to help developers meet established KPIs. Liberica JDK Performance Edition packs the following GC amendments accumulated up to Java 17:

● ZGC is production-ready and delivers better allocation and relocation performance as well as consistent throughput on large heaps;

● G1GC incorporates numerous upgrades that allow for faster full GC thanks to parallelization, faster cleanup due to concurrent execution, and even better resource consumption in some scenarios (JEP 348).

In addition, both GC implementations above support NUMA-aware allocation that helps to optimize memory access patterns on multi-socket machines contributing to latency reduction.

Liberica JDK Performance Edition also includes ShenandoahGC, which is not shipped with Oracle Java — this GC implementation is perfect for large heaps providing consistently low pause times regardless of the heap size.

Like a standard JDK, Liberica JDK Performance Edition can be used to develop or run applications on headless or GUI systems on Linux x86. The solution is part of the Liberica JDK subscription and receives the same support treatment, with quarterly security patches for JDK 11 and 17, applicable fixes, and 24/7 service based on strict SLA.