Sun Microsystems will soon release a new upgrade of Java, Java 6 update 12, which would ultimately have to provide quality support for 64 bit systems.

Although there is already 64-bit version of Java Runtime Environment, it was not the case for the Java Plugin, Java Web Start or Java Control Panel, so that the majority of users of 64-bit system for properly browsing the web pages had to use 32-bit versions of the browser.

The new update allows you to execute Java applications in a 64-bit version of the browser, and will be an integral part of Java Runtime Environment Standard Edition. However, for proper operation of Java applications in 32-bit browsers (on 64-bit OS) users will need to install and 32-bit Java Runtime Environment.

Update 12 comes with official support for Windows 2008, better performance for Java Webstart, JavaFX and fixes 140 bugs from previous versions. [via]

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