One of the two major additions will be the Resource Management API framework. Defined in the experimentalstuff.rm package, this set of classes allows for defining and managing various kinds of resources. The first release of the RM API will have the CPU time and network resources management implemented. But one can do much more - in particular, its possible to define middleware- and application-specific resources. The initial design of the RM API has been described here. We have also written a report on J2EE-related experiments with the RM API. Since this API is used as a starting point for the JSR 284, I'm encouraging anyone interested in the topic of managing resources for Java programs to take a look at it. Be warned, though: it will keep evolving.

The second major enhancement will be experimental extensions for clustering. They add clustering capabilities to the world of isolates (e.g., one can create them remotely) and to the RM API (e.g., one can control resource consumption of remote isolates). Quite neat. Really. We're trying to make cluster programming as easy as possible. Users' feedback will be invaluable to make sure we're heading in the useful direction. We've got just one public report on the use of cluster extensions; more to come.

MVM automatically virtualizes mutable state of Java classes. But how about static data of core native libraries? To demonstrate that's it's not so difficult to make a non-trivial and in a large part native subsystem of the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine multi-tasking friendly we've modified the XToolkit. The end effect is that multiple isolates will be able to execute AWT code without unwanted interference through the associated native libraries. Special thanks to our Geneva friends for taking care of this one.

We have also been working on the internal improvements to the MVM. The users will note faster start-up time and better overall performance of applications executed in MVM.

We're planning to bundle the above extensions into one code drop within the next several weeks. Further on the horizon is a port to the x86 plaform (Solaris and Linux).