Below is a small test case in which c2 is not optimizing correctly; its performance is orders of magnitude worse than c1. The bug only manifests itself when static and local methods are involved; in the test program below, running with any argument calls static methods of another class which triggers the bug.

The JVM in use is
java version "1.3.1"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.3.1-b24)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 1.3.1-b24, mixed mode)

Here's the output of a run where the code behaves normally (numbers are in ms):

%java -server Test
calls to static method took 44
repeating test
calls to static method took 29

Inserting a call to a local method produces this. Notice that once the
static method are called (in the second loop), the performance goes way
down (even for later local calls).

%java -server Test 1
calls to local method took 73
calls to static method took 4366
repeating test
calls to local method took 8015
calls to static method took 4695

Here's the same run with c1:

%java Test 1
calls to local method took 643
calls to static method took 1265
repeating test
calls to local method took 697
calls to static method took 1251

This code is very similar to what the Oracle Thin JDBC drivers do, with the result that appservers (or anything else) that use those drivers with -server have poor performance. This hampers our internal scaling of ECperf and will have a significant impact on customers using the Oracle Thin JDBC drivers.

Here's the sample code:

class TestOther {

    public static void yyy() {
    }
}

public class Test {

    boolean xxx() {
        return true;
    }

    boolean x;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new Test().run(args);
    }

    public void run(String[] args) {
        long now, then;
        boolean doLocal =false;
        if (args.length > 0)
            doLocal = true;

        if (doLocal) {
            then = System.currentTimeMillis();
            for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
                x = xxx();
            }
            now = System.currentTimeMillis();
            System.out.println("calls to local method took " + (now - then));
        }
        then = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
            TestOther.yyy();
        }
        now = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println("calls to static method took " + (now - then));

        System.out.println("repeating test");

        if (doLocal) {
            then = System.currentTimeMillis();
            for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
                x = xxx();
            }
            now = System.currentTimeMillis();
            System.out.println("calls to local method took " + (now - then));
        }

        then = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
            TestOther.yyy();
        }
        now = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println("calls to static method took " + (now - then));
    }
}