The FFM API finalised in Java 22 makes native interop far cleaner than JNI or JNA. These posts explore how it works, how it is being integrated into Pi4J, and what it unlocks for Java on embedded hardware.
Pi4J contributor Tom Aarts joins Frank Delporte for a hands-on session focused on hardware testing in Pi4J V4. Tom has been a long-time contributor to the Pi4J ecosystem. He added example devices, improved core code by finding gaps through real-world usage, and most recently designed the Pi4J Smoke Test hardware setup that makes integration testing on real Raspberry Pi hardware practical and repeatable.
Live stream with Matti Tahvonen and Frank Delporte with the smell of smoked food and fresh Java code! Matti from the Vaadin team shows a project that started as a Raspberry Pi side project and turned into a full-blown IoT application. He has built a smoker controller — yes, an actual BBQ smoker — with Pi4J V4, Vaadin for the UI, and Quarkus on the backend. So we can now officially say that Pi4J V4 has been smoke-tested in production…
Live stream with Nick Gritsenko and Frank Delporte about the Foreign Function and Memory (FFM) API that got introduced in Java 22, and how it was used to create a new plugin for the Pi4J library. This will help to bring electronics programming with Java to many more boards and help to simplify the Pi4J project.
These are the links from the jChampions Conference online talk, on January 27, 2026: “The Wait is Over: Foreign Function & Memory (FFM) API brings modern Java to the Raspberry Pi”.
This is a crosspost from the article I contributed to this year’s JVM Advent.
The Pi4J project is a Java library that allows you to control the GPIO pins and electronic components connected to a Raspberry Pi with pure Java code. It removes the complexity of using native libraries and the Java Native Interface (JNI), allowing you to focus on your application logic.
These are the links from the Ya!vaConf virtual talk on December 4, 2025: “Java Champion Talk - How the new Foreign Function & Memory API pushes Java on Raspberry Pi to the next level”.
These are the links from the JFall talk in Ede, The Netherlands, on November 6, 2025: “The Wait is Over: Foreign Function & Memory (FFM) API brings modern Java to the Raspberry Pi”.
These are the links from the Devoxx talk in Antwerp, Belgium, on October 9, 2025: “The Wait is Over: Foreign Function & Memory (FFM) API brings modern Java to the Raspberry Pi”.