The JVM (especially the HotSpot VM) is famous for having a huge number of optimizations it can apply at runtime.
Is there a way to look at a certain piece of code and se
The following is a very good resource:
http://wikis.sun.com/display/HotSpotInternals/Home
Particularly interesting are the "LogCompilation tool" and "LogCompilation overview" links (can't post direct links as I've just registered).