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[[Image:Java_Logo.svg|130px|right|Java Sun Logo]]
{{Java platforms}}
The Java Platform is the world's most broadly deployed open source software technology, in use by hundreds of millions of users across the world to create, display, operate and interact with services on the internet. The Java platform runs on devices as small as the SIM card in your phone, up into nearly 1 billion Java enabled phones, it runs on myriad set top boxes, hundreds of millions of desktop PC's, and into a diversity of network devices, from servers and storage systems, to network devices.
Formally, theThe '''Java Platformplatform''' is the name for a bundle of related programs, or [[platform (computing)|platform]], from [[Sun Microsystems]] which allow for developing and running programs written in the [[Java (programming language)|Java programming language]]. The platform is not specific to any one processor or operating system, but rather, an execution engine (called a [[virtual machine]]) and a set of standard libraries which provide common functionality are implemented for various hardware and operatings systems so that Java programs can run identically on all of them.
The platform is properly called the '''Java Platform''' (formerly Java 2 Platform[http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/javaone2005/naming.html]), and includes the Java Platform Standard Edition or [[Java SE]] (formerly J2SE), the Java Platform Enterprise Edition or [[Java EE]] (formerly J2EE), and the Java Platform Micro Edition or [[Java ME]] (formerly J2ME). As of Dec.December 2006, the current version of the Java Platform is specified as either 1.6.0 or 6 (both refer to the same version). Version 6 is the product version, while 1.6.0 is the developer version. A good overview of the myriad of technologies that makes up the current Java Platform can be found on the [http{{Javadoc:SE/Home URL}}docs/javaindex.sun.com/javase/6/docs/html JDK Documentation Page].
== Java technologies ==
The Java platformPlatform consists of several programs, each of which provides a distinct portion of its overall capabilities. There is the Java compiler that converts Java source code into Java bytecode (an intermediate language for the [[Java Virtual Machine]] a.k.a. JVM) and provided as part of the [[Java Development Kit]] (JDK). There is a sophisticated [[Java Runtime Environment]] (JRE) that usually implements the JVM by means of a [[Just-in-time_compilation|just-in-time (JIT) compiler]] that converts intermediate bytecode into native machine code on the fly. There are extensive libraries (pre-compiled into Java bytecode) containing reusable code, as well as numerous ways for Java applications to be deployed, including being embedded in a web page as an applet. Taken together, this entire set of software technologies is referred to as the 'Java Platform'.
== Java Virtual Machine ==
{{main|Java Virtual Machine}}
The heart of the Java Platform is the concept of a "virtual machine" that executes [[Java bytecode]] programs. This bytecode is the same no matter what hardware or operating system the program is running under. There is a JIT compiler within the ''Java Virtual Machine'', or JVM. The JIT compiler translates the Java bytecode into native processor instructions at run-time and caches the native code in memory during execution.
The use of bytecode as an intermediate language permits Java programs to run on any platform that has a virtual machine available. The use of a JIT compiler means that Java applications, after a short delay during loading and once they have "warmed up" by being all or mostly JIT-compiled, tend to run about as fast as native programs.
==See also==
*[[List of Java APIs]]
*[[Java (Sun)]]
*[[Java (programming language)]]
*[[http://www.ilog.com/products/jloox/] JLoox graphics suite] sample graphic PENDING
{{Java (Sun)}}
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