There basically is no difference. At some point in time a new version of JBoss Cache was renamed to Infinispan. So Infinispan is just the latest version of JBoss Cache.

JBoss does this more often. For instance, recently JBoss Messaging was renamed to HornetQ.

It sounds a bit dramatic, with statements like JBoss Cache is deprecated, and new forums being created etc, but it's really the same difference between JBoss Cache 2 and JBoss Cache 3. When JBoss Cache 3 was released, JBoss Cache 2 wasn't actually developed anymore (although it did receive patches I think).

I personally think this renaming business is a bit confusing, but I'm sure the developers have their reasons

Not as simple as that, Henk.  API and compatibility was also broken between Infinispan and JBoss Cache, and the core data container was completely redesigned to accomodate the new goals in scalability and features.  So it really does become a very different project.  :-)

I would add to what Manik said:

- Infinispan does not enforce tree structure (it supports it though). JBoss cache had an Map-like api on top of it, but that was unnatural and memory costly

- Infinispan has distribution - very important for scalability

- JTA support was improved a lot

Manik Surtani wrote:

 

Not as simple as that, Henk.  API and compatibility was also broken between Infinispan and JBoss Cache, and the core data container was completely redesigned to accomodate the new goals in scalability and features.  So it really does become a very different project.  :-)

I see. Yes, the name change is a good opportunity to make some breaking changes Of course, there can be huge changes between versions without having to change the name. The new microkernel was a very large change between JBoss AS 4 and JBoss AS 5 and it really was a complete redesign, but in this case the name of the AS remained the same.

Mircea Markus wrote:

 

JTA support was improved a lot

This in particular could also have been done between JBoss Cache 3 and 4, but what's in a name. Very cool that this was improved. Care to share some quick highlights of the major differences between the JTA support in JBoss Cache and Infinispan?

JBossCache uses Synchronizations for being notified on transaction boundaries. Infinispan is a full transaction participant (XAResource). Beside other things, it can influence the outcome for a transaction - not the case with JBossCache.