Lisp SBCL versus Java fastest programs Always look at the source code. These are only the fastest programs. Look at the other programs. They may seem more-like a fair comparison to you. spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 1.44 15,796 791 5.67 99% 99% 99% 99% Java 1.68 38,348 950 6.43 96% 96% 96% 95% fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 9.57 32,328 1527 37.43 99% 95% 98% 99% Java 11.00 34,104 1282 43.42 99% 98% 98% 99% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 4.14 46,808 2447 16.42 100% 99% 99% 99% Java 4.11 68,204 796 16.20 98% 99% 98% 99% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 7.78 18,192 1403 7.83 0% 0% 100% 0% Java 6.75 35,200 1489 6.83 0% 0% 100% 1% binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 4.85 327,456 932 9.11 40% 48% 63% 36% Java 2.50 2,487,096 835 7.90 88% 75% 75% 79% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 10.21 538,444 2479 37.25 89% 98% 88% 90% Java 5.00 408,040 1812 16.36 74% 81% 86% 86% regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 16.83 838,640 1972 33.70 31% 77% 45% 46% Java 5.70 656,328 929 18.25 89% 76% 79% 75% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 4.28 15,168 1757 4.30 0% 100% 0% 0% Java 1.27 43,968 2473 3.92 73% 95% 70% 70% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 3.14 126,572 493 3.17 0% 0% 100% 1% Java 0.79 35,568 764 0.84 99% 3% 3% 1% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 6.40 1,490,512 904 6.49 100% 1% 0% 0% Java 1.54 702,332 2183 3.55 78% 46% 49% 57% Lisp SBCL SBCL 2.0.8 Java openjdk 15 2020-09-15 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 15+36-1562) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 15+36-1562, mixed mode, sharing) all Lisp SBCL programs & measurements all Java programs & measurements