Itanium 1.6.0_07 Release Notes

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About Itanium 1.6.0_07

Itanium 1.6.0_07 is a port of JDK 6 update 7 to the Itanium (64 bit) architecture platform.

The full internal version number for this update release is 1.6.0_07-b3050 (where "b" means "build"). The external version number is 6u7. Included in JDK 6u7 for Itanium (64 bit architecture) platform is version 11.0 of the Java HotSpot Server Virtual Machine.

The following JDK, JRE tools are not included in Itanium JDK, JRE 6u7 release:

• Java Plug-in
• Java Web Start
• Java Update
• JavaDB (JavaDB is included only into Linux self-extracting JDK distributive)
• Java VisualVM
• Serviceablity Agent

Only offline installation is available for JDK, JRE 6u7.

Please refer to JDK tools and Utilities for JDK tools description.

Changes in Itanium 1.6.0_7

• See changes in 1.6.0_7 common for all platforms in Java SE 6 Update 7 Release Notes.
• New features of Java SE 6 Update 10 in Itanium 1.6.0_7

  Some new features of Java SE 6 Update 10 were included into JDK 6u7 for Itanium, including a new cross-platform Swing look & feel, code name Nimbus which provides a nice update over 'Metal' and 'Ocean'.

• Performance

  Improvements in Java HotSpot Virtual Machine and class libraries implemented in JDK 5 and 6 releases resulted in significant performance improvement as compared to the last JDK release for Itanium (JDK 1.4.2).

Supported System Configurations

JDK, JRE Installation for Microsoft Windows (Itanium)

Installation procedure installs the JDK or JRE 6u7 but not the Java Plugin or Java Web Start (which are not available for 64-bit Windows) or public Java Runtime Environment (when JDK is installed).

To install, go to Java SE Downloads page, section "JDK 6 Update 7 for Intel ItaniumPH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH" if you need JDK, or "JRE 6 Update 7 for Intel ItaniumPH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH" if you need JRE.

On the Java SE Development Kit for Itanium 6u7 page (if JDK) or Java SE Runtime Environment for Itanium 6u7 page (if JRE), select "Windows" platform.

Download jdk-6u7-windows-ia64.exe or jre-6u7-windows-ia64.exe file and then follow the 32-bit Windows JDK installation or 32-bit Windows JRE installation, "Windows Offline Installation" instructions.

JDK, JRE Installation for Linux (Itanium)

Installation procedure installs the JRE or JDK 6u7 but not the Java Plugin or Java Web Start (which are not available for 64-bit Linux) or the public Java Runtime Environment (when JDK is installed).

To install, go to Java SE Downloads page, section "JDK 6 Update 7 for Intel ItaniumPH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH" if you need JDK, or "JRE 6 Update 7 for Intel ItaniumPH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH" if you need JRE.

On the Java SE Development Kit for Itanium 6u7 page (if JDK) or Java SE Runtime Environment for Itanium 6u7 page (if JRE), select "Linux" platform.

The JDK, JRE for Linux 64-bit comes bundled in two install formats - Linux self-extracting files jdk-6u7-linux-ia64.bin, jre-6u7-linux-ia64.bin and Linux RPM in self-extracting files jdk-6u7-linux-ia64-rpm.bin, jre-6u7-linux-ia64-rpm.bin.

Download necessary file and then follow the 32-bit Linux JDK installation or 32-bit Linux JRE installation instructions.

Known installation issues

• On Linux systems (specifically, on SLES 9) *-rpm.bin installation can report dmidecode unaligned access:

  
  
  dmidecode(18485): unaligned access to 0x600000000000801a, ip=0x4000000000007390                   
  dmidecode(18485): unaligned access to 0x600000000000801e, ip=0x40000000000073a1                   
  dmidecode(18485): unaligned access to 0x6000000000008065, ip=0x4000000000003151                   
  dmidecode(18485): unaligned access to 0x60000000000080f7, ip=0x4000000000003151                 
  

  However, the bundles install successfully. Message printing can be disabled by command 'prctl --unaligned=silent'.

• On Linux systems, JDK (JRE) 6u7 can not be installed using jdk(jre)-6u7-linux-ia64-rpm.bin file if, on the same machine, JDK (JRE) 6u10 was previously installed using jdk(jre)-6u10-beta-linux-ia64-rpm.bin.

  Installation reports:

  Preparing... ########################################### [100%] package jdk-1.6.0_10-beta (which is newer than jdk-1.6.0_07-fcs) is already installed

  JDK (JRE) 6u7 is not installed.

  Workarounds are:

  • Un-install JDK (JRE) 6u10, then, install JDK (JRE) 6u7 using jdk(jre)-6u7-linux-ia64-rpm.bin, or
  • Install JDK (JRE) 6u7 using jdk(jre)-6u7-linux-ia64.bin file
  • If JDK (JRE) 6u10 was installed using jdk(jre)-6u10-beta-linux-ia64-rpm.bin, installation of JRE (JDK) 6u7 using jre(jdk)-6u7-linux-ia64-rpm.bin passes successfully.
• On Windows systems after installation of JDK (or JRE) the registry key PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PHHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Development Kit\1.6PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH (for JDK), PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PHHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\1.6PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH (for JRE) should contain value PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PHJavaHomePH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH with the full path name of the directory in which JDK (or JRE) of the highest version is installed.

  After installation of Itanium 6u7 JDK (or JRE) PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PHJavaHomePH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PH contains the path to the last installed JDK (or JRE) instead of the path to the JDK (or JRE) of the highest installed version. After un-installation the value is removed.

  Workaround is to put the correct value to the Windows registry manually. See Deploying the JRE on Windows for more details about registry values.

Performance

• Recommended options for running server applications with high performance are:

  
  
  -XX:+AggressiveOpts               
  -XX:+AggressiveHeap               
  -XX:+UseParallelGC               
  -XX:CompileThreshold=10000               
  -XX:MaxPermSize=256m               
  -XX:PermSize=256m               
  -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=128m               
  -XX:+UseLargePages               
  -XX:LargePageSizeInBytes=16m for Windows               
  -XX:LargePageSizeInBytes=256m for Linux               
  PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PHXmx, -Xms, PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PHXmn should have big values.               
  

• OSR (On Stack Replacement) is turned off by default. To turn it on, use PH*PH*PH\uFFFDPH*PH*PHXX:+UseOnStackReplacement. This will likely improve performance of applications that contain long-running loops, and will not affect performance of other kinds of applications.

Known issues and limitations

• JVM can intermittently crash with SIGILL on Linux RHEL4 Itanium when it is executed from NFS.

  This is a known bug in kernels of version less than 2.6.22. Processors older than Montecito (e.g. Madison, McKinley) are not affected.

  RHEL4 (Nahant Update 5), kernel 2.6.9-55.EL has this bug. In RHEL5.2(Tikanga), kernel 2.6.18-92.el5 the bug is fixed.

  Possible workarounds are:

  • Run java not from NFS.
  • Migrate to newer kernel in which this bug is fixed, for example, to RHEL5.2 or RHEL4.6.
  • Apply patch linux-2.6-mm-ia64-flush-i-cache-before-set_pte.patch (from kernel-2.6.18-92.el5.src.rpm) to your kernel.

• JVM can intermittently crash when executed on Montecito or Montvale microprocessors, SLES 9 (any SP) operating system with Hyper-Threading enabled.

  Typically, the crash is caused by SIGILL (si_errno=0, si_code=1 (ILL_ILLOPC)) signal.

  Workarounds are:

  • Disable Hyper-Threading either completely (in BIOS) or partially for JVM process only using 'taskset' utility.
  • Use SLES 10.

• Support for NUMA architectures is not fully implemented on Itanium yet, usage of option -XX:+UseNUMA may cause instability of the JVM.

• JVM can intermittently crash on Windows 2003 Itanium platform when it is run from network drive. A workaround is to install the JRE on local disk. The problem disappears after installing "Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 for Itanium-based Systems"

• ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, http://www.alsa-project.org/wiki/Main_Page) sound support is not included in this release.

• Java 6 does not support Sun PKCS#11 and SunMSCAPI providers for Windows 64-bit (see native security features availability in various operating systems in Leveraging Security in the Native Platform Using Java SE 6 Technology article). These providers are not a part of Java 6 for Windows Itanium. If necessary, one can use implementations of these providers offered by third parties.