4 ms·

Maglev, Gemstone's Ruby VM, Finally Revealed

39 points by oomkiller 17y ago

petercooper 17y ago
I've posted this as news with extended links on related presentations and such here: http://www.rubyinside.com/maglev-alpha-released-2807.html http://www.rubyinside.com/maglev-alpha-released-2807.html (Update: After some head scratching I finally got to an irb prompt and have written up instructions on that post on getting it all running on OS X. The announcement post doesn't really go into anything and I couldn't find a README.) (Update 2: I ran a VERY flimsy benchmark from the Alioth shootout - the Fannkuch benchmark - on 1.8.7, 1.9.1, MacRuby and MagLev and get these results: 1.8.7 - 6.276s 1.9.1 - 3.539s MagLev Alpha - 2.975s MacRuby 0.5b2 - 4.649s MacRuby 0.5b2 (compiled) - 2.901s JRuby 1.4.0 (basic) - 5.579s Take with a pinch of salt, etc. It's a single benchmark under less than scientific conditions.. I bet half of that JRuby figure, for example, is JRuby starting up the JVM ;-))
- oomkiller 17y ago
  Cool, nice to see a decent write-up on it rather than a Google Groups post.
- avibryant 17y ago
  Try a benchmark that uses a lot of blocks and I bet the results are more interesting.
misuba 17y ago
So... how many RubySpecs _are_ there exactly? They pass over 28,000 and they aren't done. How much ground is left to cover?
- stcredzero 17y ago
  This is why I opine that Ruby is a bit too complex!
  - riffraff 17y ago
    well, rubyspec covers builtin and bundled libraries. Not that this makes ruby-the-language simple, anyway.
oomkiller 17y ago
Damn, a year and a half since it was announced and it still doesn't run Rails?
- mishmash 17y ago
  I wonder if they're partially waiting for Rails3?
  - oomkiller 17y ago
    Lord help us all if Rails 3 is so different than 2 that they're WAITING to make it compatible with MagLev.
    - bhousel 17y ago
      It isn't.. But why do something twice if you don't have to?
      - jamesbritt 17y ago
        What's being done "twice"? The goal isn't to run specific applications or frameworks, it's to run Ruby code. If they're going to tweak the VM to handle one specific use cases while ignoring others, then it's a not a Ruby VM.
va_coder 17y ago
Where's the source code? Is Maglev open source? I can't recall the last time I downloaded something in alpha or beta that wasn't open source.
- oomkiller 17y ago
  Not exactly sure of the license, but they do have something on GitHub. I believe Maglev itself is open source, but it relies on the GemStone/S VM, which is NOT open source.
  - va_coder 17y ago
    FYI The GemStone Virtual Machine and associated binary files and libraries written by GemStone Systems, Inc. are governed by: GemStone-Web-License.txt
  - technomancy 17y ago
    > but it relies on the GemStone/S VM, which is NOT open source. ...making it about as interesting as pre-GPL'd Java. No thanks.

39 points by oomkiller 17y ago

I've posted this as news with extended links on related presentations and such here: http://www.rubyinside.com/maglev-alpha-released-2807.html http://www.rubyinside.com/maglev-alpha-released-2807.html (Update: After some head scratching I finally got to an irb prompt and have written up instructions on that post on getting it all running on OS X. The announcement post doesn't really go into anything and I couldn't find a README.) (Update 2: I ran a VERY flimsy benchmark from the Alioth shootout - the Fannkuch benchmark - on 1.8.7, 1.9.1, MacRuby and MagLev and get these results: 1.8.7 - 6.276s 1.9.1 - 3.539s MagLev Alpha - 2.975s MacRuby 0.5b2 - 4.649s MacRuby 0.5b2 (compiled) - 2.901s JRuby 1.4.0 (basic) - 5.579s Take with a pinch of salt, etc. It's a single benchmark under less than scientific conditions.. I bet half of that JRuby figure, for example, is JRuby starting up the JVM ;-))

oomkiller 17y ago
Cool, nice to see a decent write-up on it rather than a Google Groups post.
avibryant 17y ago
Try a benchmark that uses a lot of blocks and I bet the results are more interesting.

misuba 17y ago

So... how many RubySpecs _are_ there exactly? They pass over 28,000 and they aren't done. How much ground is left to cover?

stcredzero 17y ago
This is why I opine that Ruby is a bit too complex!
- riffraff 17y ago
  well, rubyspec covers builtin and bundled libraries. Not that this makes ruby-the-language simple, anyway.

oomkiller 17y ago

Damn, a year and a half since it was announced and it still doesn't run Rails?

mishmash 17y ago
I wonder if they're partially waiting for Rails3?
- oomkiller 17y ago
  Lord help us all if Rails 3 is so different than 2 that they're WAITING to make it compatible with MagLev.
  - bhousel 17y ago
    It isn't.. But why do something twice if you don't have to?
    - jamesbritt 17y ago
      What's being done "twice"? The goal isn't to run specific applications or frameworks, it's to run Ruby code. If they're going to tweak the VM to handle one specific use cases while ignoring others, then it's a not a Ruby VM.

va_coder 17y ago

Where's the source code? Is Maglev open source? I can't recall the last time I downloaded something in alpha or beta that wasn't open source.

oomkiller 17y ago
Not exactly sure of the license, but they do have something on GitHub. I believe Maglev itself is open source, but it relies on the GemStone/S VM, which is NOT open source.
- va_coder 17y ago
  FYI The GemStone Virtual Machine and associated binary files and libraries written by GemStone Systems, Inc. are governed by: GemStone-Web-License.txt
- technomancy 17y ago
  > but it relies on the GemStone/S VM, which is NOT open source. ...making it about as interesting as pre-GPL'd Java. No thanks.