[drlisp]

>>Maybe 50, working for 2-3 years, to get a usable first cut and basic standard libraries? Paying them an average salary of 100k, that's "only" 15 million dollars.

I think you are underestimating the man-hours and cost. You will need a Google or some other tech giant to engineer this. Why not improve openJDK?

[spooneybarger]

correct me if i'm wrong but from what i've read about the patents on this, some improvements might open you up to patent issues.