--- old/src/share/vm/oops/arrayOop.hpp	2011-10-26 12:57:24.406307900 +0200
+++ new/src/share/vm/oops/arrayOop.hpp	2011-10-26 12:57:23.969507100 +0200
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 1997, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 1997, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
  *
  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -113,11 +113,19 @@
       return max_jint;
     }
 
-    const int32_t max_words = align_size_down(max_jint, MinObjAlignment);
-    const int32_t max_element_words = max_words - header_size(type);
+    const size_t max_words_per_size_t = SIZE_MAX / HeapWordSize;
+    const int32_t max_words = (int32_t)MIN2((size_t)max_jint, max_words_per_size_t);
+    const int32_t max_element_words = align_size_down(max_words - header_size(type), MinObjAlignment);
     const int32_t words_per_element = bytes_per_element >> LogHeapWordSize;
     return max_element_words / words_per_element;
   }
+  
+// for unit testing
+#ifndef PRODUCT
+  static bool check_overflow(BasicType type);
+  static int32_t old_max_array_length(BasicType type);
+  static bool test_max_array_length();
+#endif
 };
 
 #endif // SHARE_VM_OOPS_ARRAYOOP_HPP