Production Release or Reference Implementation

The following applies to versions prior to 1.3.0. Starting with J2SE 1.3.0, only the production release exists. There is no Solaris reference implementation.

Reference Implementation - Those who want the latest Solaris implementation of the JDK software or JRE release and do not require optimized performance can obtain the reference implementations:

• JDK 1.1 Reference Implementation
• JRE 1.1 Reference Implementation
• JDK 1.2 Reference Implementation
• JRE 1.2 Reference Implementation

The Solaris binaries are built from the same source code as the Windows version. The 1.1 reference implementations for Solaris do not include a JIT. Reference implementations are distributed as (essentially) a tar file which may be unpacked in any directory, so that root permission is not required for installation.

Production Release - In contrast, customers whose applications/applets will be released as products, and who need a Solaris JRE or JDK software with optimized performance, should use the Solaris production releases:

• JDK production release
• JRE production release

The production releases are based on the reference implementation of the same version number, and include a JIT compiler, additional performance tuning, and bug fixes. The production releases are installed as standard Solaris packages, which require root permission for installation.

Varying levels of technical support are available for both the Reference and Production releases through the standard Solaris support channels.