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. fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 12.12 33,328 1527 47.62 99% 99% 96% 98% Java 14.33 34,888 1282 56.56 99% 98% 99% 98% spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 3.98 16,756 791 15.76 99% 99% 99% 99% Java 4.22 36,948 950 16.43 98% 97% 98% 96% binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 8.40 396,936 932 21.18 50% 58% 63% 81% Java 8.32 953,620 835 28.37 95% 87% 81% 77% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 26.25 18,060 1403 26.61 1% 0% 100% 1% Java 21.93 35,408 1429 22.44 1% 0% 100% 1% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 8.90 50,644 2473 33.52 99% 100% 85% 93% Java 6.83 79,108 796 26.86 97% 99% 99% 99% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 16.17 512,664 2479 57.91 86% 98% 88% 86% Java 9.33 447,976 1812 29.36 73% 83% 82% 77% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 7.34 18,092 1757 7.41 0% 1% 100% 0% Java 2.22 45,172 2473 5.99 61% 50% 98% 60% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 11.40 1,391,452 904 11.58 28% 1% 0% 73% Java 3.16 712,368 2183 7.08 65% 47% 42% 70% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 12.37 329,212 493 12.45 100% 1% 0% 0% Java 3.07 39,320 938 3.31 2% 5% 3% 98% regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL Failed Java 10.31 644,560 740 31.47 72% 72% 92% 70% Lisp SBCL SBCL 2.0.0 Java openjdk 13 2019-09-17 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 13+33) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 13+33, mixed mode, sharing) all Lisp SBCL programs & measurements all Java programs & measurements