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 12.06 33,044 1527 47.21 95% 99% 98% 99% Java 16.12 33,168 1282 63.71 100% 98% 99% 98% spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 4.00 19,808 890 15.78 98% 99% 99% 99% Java 4.15 36,428 950 16.26 98% 100% 98% 97% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 6.66 46,768 2447 26.53 99% 99% 100% 99% Java 6.84 76,008 796 26.90 99% 98% 98% 98% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 26.19 17,660 1403 26.35 91% 9% 0% 0% Java 21.85 34,112 1489 22.16 1% 0% 0% 100% binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 11.41 321,692 932 24.35 53% 73% 42% 45% Java 8.28 948,040 835 28.20 80% 84% 87% 90% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 16.10 538,172 2479 57.76 98% 88% 86% 86% Java 9.14 403,576 1812 29.10 87% 72% 74% 86% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 7.09 17,724 1757 7.18 1% 1% 88% 12% Java 2.22 43,096 2473 6.10 67% 83% 45% 80% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 11.42 1,390,812 904 11.59 1% 1% 49% 51% Java 3.27 714,144 2183 7.54 47% 60% 66% 58% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL 12.37 131,624 493 12.55 0% 0% 37% 63% Java 1.83 34,848 764 1.95 99% 1% 4% 2% regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lisp SBCL Failed Java 10.27 635,500 740 29.42 74% 81% 55% 76% Lisp SBCL SBCL 2.0.4 Java openjdk 14 2020-03-17 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 14+36-1461) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 14+36-1461, mixed mode, sharing) all Lisp SBCL programs & measurements all Java programs & measurements