While I am not a cheerleader for the JVM, I would take issue with one statement. "Java cant use even that small sum of cheap ram without huge GC pauses, and it

While I am not a cheerleader for the JVM, I would take issue with one statement. "Java cant use even that small sum of cheap ram without huge GC pauses, and it never will." It is true that the Hotspot JVM is awful in this regard but Zing, from Azul, has claimed to offer a pauseless GC for very large heaps. I did a tiny bit of work on their old Vega boxes (~700 cores) and know that I was able to allocate 3 Gig a second with no problems. Now I wouldn't take my word on it, because Zing is for X86 systems and not their own custom hardware. But you can try it http://www.azulsystems.com/press/azul-systems-announces-new-initiative-to-support-open-source-community-with-free-zing-jvm http://www.azulsystems.com/press/azul-systems-announces-new-... It gets a mention from Martin Thomson. Do a text search for Zing here http://mechanical-sympathy.blogspot.co.uk/ http://mechanical-sympathy.blogspot.co.uk/ I think the future is probably pretty bright for the JVM and for garbage collected languages in general.