Why Tencent’s OpenKona JDK Boosts Java Performance by 15% and How to Install It

OpenKona Donation

Tencent officially donated its long‑developed compiler software OpenKona JDK to the OpenAtom open‑source foundation, contributing not only the full source code but also software packages, intellectual property, trademarks, build and test infrastructure, and community facilities.

Performance Highlights

OpenKona, built on the OpenJDK project, delivers performance improvements of more than 15% compared with community versions, especially in big‑data, machine‑learning, and cloud‑computing workloads.

Java applications require a JDK (Java Development Kit) to compile and run, making the JDK a critical component of many national‑level services.

Domestic Adoption

Historically, JDK development and distribution were dominated by foreign vendors. To foster independent domestic core software, Tencent began contributing to OpenKona in early 2019 and has repeatedly ranked first in OpenJDK China enterprise contributions.

More than 90% of Tencent’s internal JDK usage is OpenKona, deployed on over one million server instances across all business lines and serving more than 120 external companies. OpenKona supports domestic CPUs and operating systems, including ARM, X86, Kylin, UnionTech UOS, and TencentOS Server.

National‑Cryptography Suite

OpenKona’s national‑cryptography suite implements a full‑stack of Chinese cryptographic algorithms, from basic algorithm libraries to public‑key infrastructure and secure communication protocols.

Installation Guide

OpenKona currently maintains three Long‑Term Support (LTS) versions: 8, 11, and 17. Below are the commands to extract, configure, and verify each version.

TK8

[[email protected] ~]$ tar zxf TencentKona8.0.19.b1_jdk_linux-x86_64_8u422.tar.gz
[[email protected] ~]$ export JAVA_HOME=/home/root/TencentKona-8.0.19-422
[[email protected] ~]$ export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH
[[email protected] ~]$ java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0_422"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (Tencent Kona 8.0.19) (build 1.8.0_422-b1)
OpenJDK 64‑Bit Server VM (Tencent Kona 8.0.19) (build 25.422-b1, mixed mode, sharing)

TK11

[[email protected] ~]$ tar zxf TencentKona-11.0.24.b1-jdk_linux-x86_64.tar.gz
[[email protected] ~]$ export JAVA_HOME=/home/root/TencentKona-11.0.24
[[email protected] ~]$ export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH
[[email protected] ~]$ java -version
openjdk version "11.0.24"2024-07-31
OpenJDK Runtime Environment TencentKonaJDK (build 11.0.24+1)
OpenJDK 64‑Bit Server VM TencentKonaJDK (build 11.0.24+1, mixed mode)

TK17

[[email protected] ~]$ tar zxf TencentKona-17.0.12.b1-jdk_linux-x86_64.tar.gz
[[email protected] ~]$ export JAVA_HOME=/home/root/TencentKona-17.0.12.b1
[[email protected] ~]$ export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH
[[email protected] ~]$ java -version
openjdk version "17.0.12"2024-07-23 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment TencentKonaJDK (build 17.0.12+1-LTS)
OpenJDK 64‑Bit Server VM TencentKonaJDK (build 17.0.12+1-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)

Reference Links

https://www.openatom.org/project/projectaeyqpyqcJ8fs
https://atomgit.com/openkona
https://github.com/Tencent/TencentKona-17