BibTeX
@MISC{Riley_explicitsoftware,
author = {Nicholas J. Riley},
title = {EXPLICIT SOFTWARE SPECULATION FOR DYNAMIC LANGUAGE RUNTIMES BY},
year = {}
}
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Abstract
While dynamic languages are now mainstream choices for application development, most popular dynamic languages are primarily executed by interpreters whose perfor-mance and capabilities restrict their wider application. The only successful remedy for these limitations has been dynamic optimization infrastructures developed specif-ically for each language. Building such infrastructures is a substantial undertaking. This dissertation presents explicit software speculation, which encloses common or expected case code in atomic regions. A best-effort hardware transactional memory executes a region speculatively when specified assumptions, or correctness constraints, permit. When an assumption becomes invalid, the hardware and runtime software transition to corresponding nonspeculative, fallback code which executes correctly, albeit more slowly, under all circumstances. I demonstrate that explicit speculation improves the performance of dynamic language implementations on existing managed runtimes by speculatively executing dynamic language code with a common case interpretation of the language semantics. I implement a variety of optimizations at a high level, maintaining correct execution without requiring the sophisticated static analysis, language-specific runtime profiling infrastructure or potentially intricate, low-level recovery code that would be otherwise necessary. In addition, I explore how explicit speculation can guarantee speculative optimization correctness in an unmanaged dynamic language runtime by utilizing additional hardware support for fine-grain memory protection. ii In memory of my mother, Dr Julia H Riley. iii
Keyphrases
explicit speculation language semantics building infrastructure dynamic language low-level recovery code correctness constraint specified assumption additional hardware support atomic region wider application unmanaged dynamic language runtime dynamic language implementation popular dynamic language fine-grain memory protection fallback code speculative optimization correctness substantial undertaking successful remedy best-effort hardware transactional memory runtime software transition dr julia riley high level dynamic language code dynamic optimization infrastructure case code common case interpretation language-specific runtime correct execution sophisticated static analysis mainstream choice application development explicit software speculation
