[offbynull]

Anyone else remember the ARM Jazelle DBX extension? I wonder if they'll end up dumping this in this the same way.

I don't remember very many phones supporting DBX, but IIRC the ones that did seemed to run J2ME apps much smoother.

[masklinn]

It's quite different though, Jazelle literally implemented java bytecode in hardware.

These instructions "merely" performs a float -> int conversion with JS semantics, such that implementations don't have to reimplement those semantics in software on ARM. The JS semantics probably match x86 so x86 gets an "unfair" edge and this is a way for ARM to improve their position.

[repiret]

It takes a lot more silicon to implement Jazelle than a single well-tailored ALU instruction. Moreover, while the market for "JVM on small Arms" never really took off, the market for "JavaScript on Arms of all sizes" is flourishing and has been for at least a dozen years.

[saagarjha]

This one is at least documented and in use by major browsers, so I doubt it will go away anytime soon.