Safety-critical Java for low-end embedded platforms

We present an implementation of the Safety-Critical Java profile (SCJ), targeted for low-end embedded platforms with as little as 16 kB RAM and 256 kB flash. The distinctive features of the implementation are a combination of a lean Java virtual machine (HVM), with a bare metal kernel implementing hardware objects, first level interrupt handlers, and native variables, and an infrastructure written in Java which is minimized through program specialization. The HVM allows the implementation to be easily ported to embedded platforms which have a C compiler as part of the development environment; the bare metal approach eliminates the need for a resource consuming operating system or C-library; the program specialization means that the infrastructure for the SCJ profile is optimized for a particular application keeping only the code and data the application needs. The SCJ implementation is evaluated with a known benchmark and shown to reduce this to a size where it can execute on a minimal configuration.