a synergy between efficient interpretation and fast selective dynamic compilation for the acceleration of embedded Java virtual machines

ABSTRACT

We propose, in this paper, a technique for the acceleration of embedded Java virtual machines. The technique relies on an established synergy between efficient interpretation and selective dynamic compilation. Actually, efficient interpretation is achieved by a generated threaded interpreter that is made of a pool of codelets. The latter are native code units efficiently implementing the dynamic semantics of a given bytecode. Besides, each codelet carries out the dispatch to the next bytecode eliminating therefore the need for a costly centralized traditional dispatch mechanism. The acceleration technique described in this paper advocates the use of a selective dynamic compiler to translate performance-critical methods to native code. The translation process takes advantage of the threaded interpreter by reusing most of the previously mentioned codelets. This tight collaboration between the interpreter and the dynamic compiler leads to a fast and lightweight (in terms of footprint) execution of Java class files.

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INDEX TERMS

Keywords:
J2ME/CLDC, Java, KVM, acceleration, code reuse, embedded systems, performance, selective dynamic compilation, threaded interpretation, virtual machine