Java Fork/Join Framework

In this paper, the authors demonstrate the feasibility of developing a pure Java implementation of a scalable, parallel processing framework. It is expected that JDK 7 will include this framework in its functionality. Fork/ Join algorithms are similar to divide-conquer algorithms and include a series of steps where a goal is broken down into a smaller set of components and the individual components are computed upon and finally the results are merged.

In the experimental results mentioned in the paper regarding the performance of Java Fork/Join versus other similar techniques in other techniques yield some observations which are a bit unclear to me. For example, the results about relatively similar speedups in performance inspite of increase in number of threads. Even though application-specific reasons are mentioned by the authors, it is likely that there are other fundamental reasons for this.

when This framework was announced for JDK 7, there was a huge deal of excitement in the developer community. I am not sure if the framework still commands as much enthusiasm as it earlier especially now that the JDK early access downloads are out. Is the framework incorporated in this release? Can someone check this?