Erlang versus Java fastest performance Always look at the source code. If the fastest programs are hand-written vector instructions, does the host language matter? You might be more interested in the less optimised programs — more seconds, less gz source code. fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #3 40.36 39,932 1257 40.43 Java 10.71 40,324 1282 42.25 Java #2 46.85 38,492 514 46.91 Erlang 74.60 37,452 1038 292.72 n-body source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #5 6.77 40,632 1429 6.82 Java #4 6.86 40,516 1489 6.89 Java #2 7.32 40,508 1424 7.37 Java #3 7.38 40,492 1430 7.43 Java 7.76 40,724 1430 7.80 Erlang #3 105.24 36,704 1399 105.29 spectral-norm source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #3 1.54 42,324 756 5.93 Java 7.02 41,448 514 7.09 Java #2 2.39 41,092 950 9.25 Erlang #2 11.72 44,660 747 46.08 Erlang 62.36 48,128 507 62.43 mandelbrot source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #4 4.39 101,236 660 16.12 Java #2 4.11 83,924 796 16.21 Java #6 4.27 84,532 802 16.86 Java 25.66 40,860 665 25.73 Java #3 7.37 88,056 903 29.24 Erlang #4 49.04 67,316 806 195.16 Erlang #3 49.80 68,004 792 198.32 Erlang #2 51.19 763,060 613 202.88 Erlang 53.73 1,645,744 534 208.74 pidigits source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #3 0.92 38,380 764 0.95 Java #2 1.34 41,352 938 1.42 Erlang #3 6.96 53,880 562 8.04 Java 7.44 430,616 800 8.45 Erlang 7.79 70,480 559 8.54 Erlang #2 7.77 56,444 512 8.81 regex-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs Java 8.58 767,552 868 16.68 Java #6 5.40 637,728 740 17.08 Java #3 5.45 736,544 929 17.42 Erlang #6 22.15 4,805,940 1048 42.24 fasta source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #4 3.17 40,400 1524 3.27 Java #6 1.16 46,068 2543 3.65 Java #5 1.23 46,180 2473 3.79 Java #2 4.32 44,708 1257 4.45 Erlang #2 19.67 36,724 1164 21.11 Erlang 46.95 36,732 1039 64.91 k-nucleotide source secs mem gz cpu secs Java 5.03 361,196 1812 16.40 Java #6 7.17 357,700 1607 25.04 Java #3 7.12 357,568 1635 25.06 Java #4 35.38 201,052 1882 35.83 Java #5 18.82 208,376 2219 40.84 Erlang #3 76.09 844,732 937 213.42 Erlang 80.84 6,288,336 936 217.90 reverse-complement source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #6 3.02 2,027,152 752 3.69 Java #5 4.46 1,094,060 1108 4.58 Java #4 5.51 1,886,052 651 5.62 Java #7 24.15 1,032,956 1647 6.20 Erlang 24.66 3,150,476 1302 73.93 Erlang #4 107.81 2,009,304 1171 144.92 Erlang #3 165.14 6,530,100 630 167.54 Java #3 Bad Output Java #8 Bad Output binary-trees source secs mem gz cpu secs Java #4 4.47 2,116,292 840 5.15 Java #6 4.88 2,058,280 529 5.59 Java #3 4.91 2,101,240 540 5.61 Java #2 5.05 2,095,888 552 5.73 Java #7 2.52 1,726,148 835 7.89 Erlang 10.60 445,148 420 10.76 Erlang #2 4.61 459,720 478 13.63 Erlang Erlang/OTP 25 [erts-13.1.4] [source] [64-bit] [smp:4:4] [ds:4:4:10] [async-threads:1] [jit] Java openjdk 20 2023-03-21 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 20+36-2344) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build build 20+36-2344 mixed mode, sharing) all Erlang programs & measurements all Java programs & measurements