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 1.43 15,772 791 5.69 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 9.72 32,444 1527 38.01 95% 99% 99% 98% Java 11.00 34,104 1282 43.42 99% 98% 98% 99% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 4.08 46,744 2447 16.19 100% 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 7.81 18,352 1403 7.81 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 4.69 342,680 932 8.98 43% 62% 39% 48% Java 2.50 2,487,096 835 7.90 88% 75% 75% 79% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 10.97 538,460 2479 39.94 88% 89% 88% 99% Java 5.00 408,040 1812 16.36 74% 81% 86% 86% regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 16.74 777,924 1972 34.16 48% 58% 57% 42% Java 5.70 656,328 929 18.25 89% 76% 79% 75% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 4.46 15,280 1757 4.49 0% 100% 1% 0% Java 1.20 44,124 2543 3.61 79% 86% 69% 65% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 3.13 131,536 493 3.14 0% 0% 0% 100% Java 0.79 35,568 764 0.84 99% 3% 3% 1% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 6.38 1,490,300 904 6.44 100% 1% 0% 0% Java 1.54 702,332 2183 3.55 78% 46% 49% 57% Lisp SBCL SBCL 2.0.10 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