Lambda the Ultimate

Hi, I have been looking for some documentation or articles w.r.t what exactly this technology involves and unfortunately have not had much luck. The only source i have is the IcedTea project which requires I pour through source code to make a determination of what these techniques involve and whether they are applicable to the situations I am interested in. Does anyone know of resources which describe the basic motivation/ideas and algorithms that "hide" behind the hotspot umbrella? If anyone here had some insight into these technologies I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,