ARM in arm with Sun in Java pact

NEWS Embedded chip designer ARM has teamed up with Sun to build its relatively cumbersome technology into mobile phones. Sun has been trying to promote the use of its Java programming language in mobile phones for years. It hopes Java will enable developers to design sophisticated applications which run on any phone or wireless gadget. But uptake of Java in phones has been slow thus far. The alliance is intended to boost Java acceptance by making it run faster using processors specially designed to run it. ARM's low-power processor designs are built in to chips for a number of embedded devices, including mobile phones and PDAs. A Java-dedicated extension to ARM processors called Jazelle spares the main processor from having to decode the Java itself. A similar version is already available for two ARM processors, the ARM7 Thumb and the ARM Thumb. ARM is now committed to producing a Jazelle version of all its processors, including the latest version, the ARM10.