Ever any performance different between Java >> and >>> right shift operators?

Question

Is there ever reason to think the >> (signed) and >>> (unsigned) right bit-shift operators in Java would perform differently? I can't detect any difference on my machine.

This is purely an academic question; it's never going to be the bottleneck I'm sure. I know: it's best to write what you mean foremost; use >> for division by 2, for example.

I assume it comes down to which architectures have which operations implemented as an instruction.

Answer 1

No. Your compiler will translate these to bytecode and the JVM will interpret the bytecode for your architecture. I think it is safe to assume that your architecture has an instruction set which includes both operations be done in few clock cycles.

Anyway, there is a difference in the behavior of these operators, so it isn't like you can just interchange them.